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Issue: Vol. 4374 No. 4: 22 Jan. 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-01-21
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4374.4.5
Page range: 545–564
Abstract views: 709
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of fan-throated lizard of the genus Sitana Cuvier, 1829 from coastal Kerala, southern India 

Travanvore Natural History Society, MBRRA 65, Jyothis, Mathrubumi Road, Vanchiyoor, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695035, India
Travanvore Natural History Society, MBRRA 65, Jyothis, Mathrubumi Road, Vanchiyoor, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695035, India
Zoological Survey of India, Western Ghat Regional Centre, Jaferkhan Colony, Eranhipalam P.O., Kozhikode, Kerala 673006, India
National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Bangalore, Karnataka 560065, India
National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Bangalore, Karnataka 560065, India
Reptilia taxonomy India molecular phylogeny mitochondrial DNA Kerala

Abstract

We here describe Sitana attenboroughii sp. nov., a new species of fan-throated lizard of the genus Sitana Cuvier, 1829 from coastal Kerala in southern India. The new species morphologically is closer to Sitana visiri Deepak, 2016 (in Deepak et al. 2016a), however, differs in having higher numbers of ventral scales and a comparatively short but richly colored dewlap. Genetically the new species shows affinity to Sitana marudhamneydhal Deepak, Khandekar, Varma & Chaitanya, 2016 from which it differs in an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 2.2% for a fragment of mitochondrial Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase (NADH) subunit 2 gene.

 

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