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Cyrtodactylus rex sp. n. in life. A adult female holotype SAMA R67636 from the Sepik River Basin, East Sepik Province B juvenile paratype SAMA R67637 from Sepik River Basin, Sandaun Province.
Cyrtodactylus equestris sp. n. in life. Paratype MZB lace 5435
from near Marina Valen Village, Papua Province, Indonesia.
Genotyped Cyrtodactylus novaeguineae from southern slopes of the Central Cordillera of New Guinea.
Photographs: S. Richards. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.562.6052
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Abstract
The diverse biota of New Guinea includes many nominally widespread species that actually comprise multiple deeply divergent lineages with more localised histories of evolution. Here we investigate the systematics of the very large geckos of the Cyrtodactylus novaeguineae complex using molecular and morphological data. These data reveal two widespread and divergent lineages that can be distinguished from each other, and from type material of Cyrtodactylus novaeguineae, by aspects of size, build, coloration and male scalation. On the basis of these differences we describe two new species. Both have wide distributions that overlap extensively in the foothill forests of the North Papuan Mountains, however one is seemingly restricted to hill and lower montane forests on the ranges themselves, while the other is more widespread throughout the surrounding lowlands. The taxon endemic to the North Papuan Mountains is related to an apparently lowland form currently known only from Waigeo and Batanta Island far to the west – hinting at a history on island arcs that accreted to form the North Papuan Mountains.
Keywords: Arc accretion, Endemism, Indonesia, lizard, orogeny, Papua New Guinea, Papua Province, Sepik Basin
Paul Oliver, Stephen Richards, Mumpuni Mumpuni and Herbert Rösler. 2016. The Knight and the King: Two New Species of Giant Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus, Gekkonidae, Squamata) from northern New Guinea, with Comments on Endemism in the North Papuan Mountains. ZooKeys. 562: 105-130. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.562.6052
The scaled king and his knight: Two new giant bent-toed gecko species from New Guinea http://phy.so/374325864 via @physorg_com
