Phrynocephalus
Creators: name: Macey, Robert
name: Schulte, James A.
name: Ananjeva, Natalia B.
name: Van, Erik T.
name: Wang, Yuezhao
name: Orlov, Nikolai
name: Shafiei, Soheila
name: Robinson, Michael D.
name: Dujsebayeva, Tatjana
name: Freund, Gabriel S.
name: Fischer, Clayton M.
name: Liu, David
name: Papenfuss, Theodore J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Agamidae
Phrynocephalus

description: F. Phrynocephalus Species Diversity as Related to Geology, Habitat and Size   
 Two regions show high species numbers in close proximity. Six species are found on the northern side of the Kopet-Dagh (mountains) along the southern margin of the Caspian Basin in Turkmenistan. Species that inhabit hard substrates are P. rossikowi, P. raddei, P. bannikovi, P. golubewii, and P. turcomanus, with P. interscapularis and P. mystaceus occurring in soft substrates (Table 5, Fig. 16). Among these species there are major size differences (Table 6).   
 Six species are also found at the juncture of the Helmand Basin of southern Afghanistan with the Baluchistan Plateau including the base of the Sulaiman Range of southern Pakistan. Species that inhabit hard substrates are P. maculatus and P. scutellatus (Table 5, Fig. 16). Smaller species that inhabit soft substrates are P. clarkorum, P. ornatus, and P. luteoguttatus (Clade C in Figs. 4 and 8). A larger species inhabiting soft substrates in large floating sand dunes is P. euptilopus, which was not sampled in this study even though repeated efforts were made in both Afghanistan and Pakistan by the last author. Among these species there are major size differences (Table 6).   
Both of these examples share a plate tectonic past around the northern migration of the Arabian Plate and its impact on ancient tectonic plates to the north in Eurasia. The Kopet-Dagh (mountains), on the northern margin of the Iranian Plateau. descends into the Caspian Basin. This region of the Caspian Basin experienced the most dramatic changes via tectonic uplift, erosion, and sea floor drying of the Paratethys Sea creating unique and diversified habitats (see Figs. 3, 9–14; Table 4). Additionally, the Helmand Block of southern Afghanistan is being pushed south by impinging Arabia and further northern invasion of the Indian Plate (Fig. 9). This has created uplift in the Gulf of Oman creating the push-back of the Makron in southern Pakistan (Figs. 9–12).  
 It is dynamic tectonics of this nature that created a series of habitats leading to speciation among Phrynocephalus. As adaptive niches were created, size diversity, morphological specializations, background matching, and defensive mimicry developed (Plates I –VIII). Future work on Phrynocephalus will need to take into account these aspects with particular attention to plate tectonic induced events in order to investigate phyletic patterns, taxonomy, and evolutionary diversity among one of the world’s most interesting and confusing lizard genera.
description: Published as part of Macey, Robert, Schulte, James A., Ananjeva, Natalia B., Van, Erik T., Wang, Yuezhao, Orlov, Nikolai, Shafiei, Soheila, Robinson, Michael D., Dujsebayeva, Tatjana, Freund, Gabriel S., Fischer, Clayton M., Liu, David & Papenfuss, Theodore J., 2018, A molecular phylogenetic hypothesis for the Asian agamid lizard genus Phrynocephalus reveals discrete biogeographic clades implicated by plate tectonics, pp. 1-81 in Zootaxa 4467 (1) on page 51, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4467.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1442134