Species Distribution Models and Niche Partitioning among Unisexual Darevskia dahli and Its Parental Bisexual ( D. portschinskii, D. mixta ) Rock Lizards in the Caucasus

Varos Petrosyan, Fedor Osipov, Vladimir Bobrov, Natalia Dergunova, Andrey Omelchenko, Alexander Varshavskiy, Felix Danielyan and Marine Arakelyan
Additional contact information
Varos Petrosyan: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia
Fedor Osipov: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia
Vladimir Bobrov: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia
Natalia Dergunova: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia
Andrey Omelchenko: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia
Alexander Varshavskiy: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia
Felix Danielyan: Department of Biology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan 0025, Armenia
Marine Arakelyan: Department of Biology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan 0025, Armenia

Mathematics, 2020, vol. 8, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Among vertebrates, true parthenogenesis is known only in reptiles. Parthenogenetic lizards of the genus Darevskia emerged as a result of the hybridization of bisexual parental species. However, uncertainty remains about the mechanisms of the co-existence of these forms. The geographical parthenogenesis hypothesis suggests that unisexual forms can co-exist with their parental species in the “marginal” habitats. Our goal is to investigate the influence of environmental factors on the formation of ecological niches and the distribution of lizards. For this reason, we created models of species distribution and ecological niches to predict the potential geographical distribution of the parthenogenetic and its parental species. We also estimated the realized niches breadth, their overlap, similarities, and shifts in the entire space of predictor variables. We found that the centroids of the niches of the three studied lizards were located in the mountain forests. The “maternal” species D. mixta prefers forest habitats located at high elevations, “paternal” species D. portschinskii commonly occurs in arid and shrub habitats of the lower belt of mountain forests, and D. dahli occupies substantially an intermediate or “marginal” position along environmental gradients relative to that of its parental species. Our results evidence that geographical parthenogenesis partially explains the co-existence of the lizards.

Keywords: Reptilia; Lacertidae; Squamata; reticulate evolution; caucasian rock lizards; parthenogenetic; ecological niches; spaces distribution models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/8/1329/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/8/1329/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:8:y:2020:i:8:p:1329-:d:396941

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematics is currently edited by Ms. Emma He

More articles in Mathematics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().