The White Sands lizards of New Mexico are a rare and classic example of convergent evolution where three species have evolved blanched coloration on the white gypsum dunes. Until now, no geological replicate of the pattern had been described. However, one of the White Sands species, the lesser earless lizard (), has been discovered to also inhabit the Salt Basin Dunes of Texas, where it has also evolved a blanched morph.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpecies delimitation attempts to match species-level taxonomy with actual evolutionary lineages. Such taxonomic conclusions are typically, but not always, based on patterns of congruence across multiple data sources and methods of analyses. Here, we use this pluralistic approach to species delimitation to help resolve uncertainty in species boundaries of phrynosomatid sand lizards of the genus Holbrookia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsilorhynchus sucatio (Hamilton) is redescribed based on the examination of 462 specimens, 13-67 mm standard length (SL). Psilorhynchus nudithoracicus Tilak & Husain is redescribed based on the examination of 97 specimens, 10-68 mm SL. Psilorhynchus gracilis Rainboth is placed in the synonymy of P nudithoracicus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF