Bates Michael F, Stanley Edward L
Department of Herpetology, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
PeerJ. 2020 Mar 25;8:e8526. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8526. eCollection 2020.
A recent multilocus molecular phylogeny of the large dragon lizards of the genus Stanley et al. (2011) recovered a south-eastern clade of two relatively lightly-armoured, geographically-proximate species ( (Boulenger, 1908) and (Van Dam, 1921)). Unexpectedly, was found to be paraphyletic, with individuals sampled from northern Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) being more closely related to than to from the type locality of Barberton in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Examination of voucher specimens used for the molecular analysis, as well as most other available museum material of the three lineages, indicated that the 'Eswatini' lineage-including populations in a small area on the northern Eswatini-Mpumalanga border, and northern KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa-was readily distinguishable from sensu stricto (and ) by its unique dorsal, lateral and ventral colour patterns. In order to further assess the taxonomic status of the three populations, a detailed morphological analysis was conducted. Multivariate analyses of scale counts and body dimensions indicated that the 'Eswatini' lineage and were most similar. In particular, differed from the other two lineages by its generally lower numbers of transverse rows of dorsal scales, and a relatively wider head. High resolution Computed Tomography also revealed differences in cranial osteology between specimens from the three lineages. The 'Eswatini' lineage is described here as a new species, sp. nov., representing the ninth known species of dragon lizard. The new species appears to be near-endemic to Eswatini, with about 90% of its range located there. Our study indicates that sensu stricto is therefore a South African endemic restricted to an altitudinal band of about 300 m in the Barberton-Nelspruit-Khandizwe area of eastern Mpumalanga Province, while is endemic to the narrow Lebombo Mountain range of South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. We present a detailed distribution map for the three species, and a revised diagnostic key to the genus .
斯坦利等人（2011年）对大型龙蜥属进行的一项最新多位点分子系统发育研究发现了一个东南部分支，包含两个装甲相对较轻、地理分布相邻的物种（（布伦格，1908年）和（范·达姆，1921年））。出乎意料的是，发现[物种名称1]是并系群，从斯威士兰北部（原斯威士兰）采集的个体与[物种名称1]的亲缘关系比与来自南非姆普马兰加省巴伯顿模式产地的[物种名称1]个体的亲缘关系更近。对用于分子分析的凭证标本以及这三个谱系的大多数其他现有博物馆标本进行检查后发现，“斯威士兰”谱系——包括斯威士兰北部与姆普马兰加省边境的一小片区域以及南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省北部的种群——通过其独特的背部、侧面和腹部颜色图案，很容易与狭义的[物种名称1]（以及[物种名称2]）区分开来。为了进一步评估这三个种群的分类地位，进行了详细的形态学分析。对鳞片计数和身体尺寸的多变量分析表明，“斯威士兰”谱系与[物种名称1]最为相似。特别是，[物种名称2]与其他两个谱系的不同之处在于其背部鳞片横向排数通常较少，头部相对较宽。高分辨率计算机断层扫描还揭示了这三个谱系标本在颅骨骨学上的差异。“斯威士兰”谱系在此被描述为一个新物种，[新物种名称]，这是已知的第九种龙蜥。这个新物种似乎几乎是斯威士兰特有的，其分布范围约90%位于该国。我们的研究表明，狭义的[物种名称1]因此是南非特有的，仅限于姆普马兰加省东部巴伯顿-内尔斯普雷特-坎迪兹韦地区约300米的海拔带，而[物种名称2]则是南非、斯威士兰和莫桑比克狭窄的莱邦博山脉特有的。我们给出了这三个物种的详细分布图，以及该属的修订鉴别检索表。
