Anolis lemurinus Cope, 1861

Castiglia, Riccardo, Flores-Villela, Oscar Alberto, Bezerra, Alexandra M. R., Gornung, Ekaterina, Annesi, Flavia, Munoz-Alonso, Luis Antonio & Solano, Emanuela, 2020, Detection of cryptic diversity in lizards (Squamata) from two Biosphere Reserves in Mesoamerica, Comparative Cytogenetics 14 (4), pp. 613-638 : 613

Anolis lemurinus Cope, 1861

Distribution.

Occurs on the Atlantic coast from central Veracruz to central Panama, and on the Pacific coast from Costa Rica to central Panama.

Samples.

RCMX214 (male*), RCMX225 (male*) Estación Chajul, Selva Lacandona, Montes Azules, Chiapas, Mexico.

DNA taxonomy.

BLAST analysis of the 630-bp MT-ND2 gene sequences from both individuals show 99.5% - 100% of identity with a sequence of A. lemurinus from Oaxaca (GenBank KT724761).

Chromosomes.

No previous chromosomal data are available for A. lemurinus and its karyotype is here described for the first time. Both male specimens from Montes Azules have a 2n = 40 (24M + 16m) karyotype (Fig. 8B ). The 12 pairs of macrochromosomes include eight pairs of submetacentric and four pairs of subtelocentric/acrocentric chromosomes. The metacentric chromosomes of pair 10 are of different size and may represent heteromorphic sex chromosomes of the XY type.

This karyotype has the same composition in micro- and macrochromosomes as all Anolis species with 2n = 40 so far described. Molecular phylogenetics ( Poe et al. 2017) place A. lemurinus nested within a clade in which all the species so far karyotyped show 2n = 40 ( Castiglia et al. 2013b). Ancestral state analysis ( Castiglia et al. 2013b) indicates that the 2n = 40 karyotype is derived from by five centric fissions of macrochromosomes from an ancestral 2n = 30. What that should be further investigated are the chromosomal rearrangements occurring within macrochromosomes in the 2n = 40 karyotype.

Figures

Figure 8. Karyotypes of A Anolis capito (2 n = 40, RCMX 218 female) B Anolis lemurinus (2 n = 40, RCMX 214 male) and C Anolis uniformis (2 n = 50, RCMX 210 male) with YX 1 X 2 sex chromosomes; in the box the X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2 (RCMX 206 female) sex chromosomes.