- Project title
- Taxonomic revaluation of selected endemic geckos from Maghreb: a case for Saurodactylus and Ptyodactylus oudrii
- Description of the project
- Recently, genetic data on two endemic taxa of Maghreb, Saurodactylus (Duméril and Bibron, 1836) and Ptyodactylus oudrii (Lataste, 1880), point to fundamental taxonomic work that needs to be done. Regarding Saurodactylus, comprised by S. fasciatus, S. mauritanicus and S. brossetti, there is questions regarding it's polyphyletic nature, and in S. brossetti and Ptyodactylus oudrii to confirm or not a species complex classification.
In this project we aim to produce a morphological dataset that will able us to do an integrative taxonomic revision on the Saurodactylus genus and Pyodactylus oudrii. By examine the museum collections at the Museum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris for this two taxa our morphological dataset will represent accurately the taxa geographic ranges and include type specimens and type localities. We propose a ambitious program of morphological analyses that will take in to account: scale patterns; linear morphometrics; geometric morphometrics and detailed CT-scan imaging.
This project will constitute an important contribute to enhance the herpetological knowledge on the Maghreb and was rewarded for funding, being integrated in the Synthesys Network (http://www.synthesys.info).
Works done by the platform AST-RX
