Meeting Abstract
The genus Tarentola (Family Phyllodactylidae) comprises 31 species distributed across the Mediterranean Basin and on many Macaronesian islands, including Madeira, the Selvages, the Canary and Cape Verde islands. In the New World, three species are recognized as representative of the subgenus Neotarentola: Tarentola americana (Cuba and the Bahamas), T. albertschwartzi (the largest and probably extinct) from Jamaica, and the recently described T. crombiei (Cuba). Earlier phylogenetics analysis in the Cuban Tarentola suggest 11.4 (7.2–15.2) Ma for the split between T. a. americana and T. crombiei and 5.5 (2.8–9.1) Ma for the split between the central and eastern Cuban populations of T. a. americana. Previous data indicate a long occupation and diversification (~15 million years) of this genus of geckos on Cuba. In the present work we have re-examined the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationships between T. a. americana, T. crombiei and we included the Bahamian taxon T. a. warreni. We have investigated the sequence variation of three mitochondrial genes (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and cytochrome b), and one nuclear gene (amelogenin) for 22 populations reaching their geographic distribution. The phylogenetics results obtained for population of Tarentola amaricana between Cuba (eastern and western) and Bahamas provide deep split between them and may warrant recognition as a separate species, after further morphological study.
