ANNALES • Ser. hist. nat. • 11 • 2001 • Suplemerst - Abstracts
Interdisciplinary Workshop "Pattern and Process in Balkan Biodiversity", Koper, September 25-28 2001
PHYLOGENY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF ADRIATIC LIZARDS - A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DINARIC 
(WESTERN BALKAN) PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC SCENARIO
Martina PODNAR, Werner MAYER, Nikola TVRTKOVIC and Eduard KLETECKI 
Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb, Croatia
The flora and fauna o f the Adriatic coast and especially its islands is under a strong antropogenic influence that 
caused extremely large Holocene changes in its composition. Thus, all data that still can be obtained from natural 
population remnants are o f major importance. Together with the fossil and sub-fossil records, they can be used to 
reconstruct the history o f colonisation o f the Dinaric region. The distribution o f endemic subspecies, and some con­
gruent patterns o f intraspecific variability imply the existence of the two main centres of diversity for the mainland 
species: one located at the region of Kvarner and a second in Dalmatia. These regions probably were also two dis­
tinct glacial réfugia. The fact that today as many as 12 lacertid species inhabit the east Adriatic coast opens the pos­
sibility, through a phylogeographic approach, for a significant contribution to the general knowledge about the his­
tory o f colonisation o f this area.
Preliminary results o f investigations o f Adriatic populations of Podarcis sicula and P. melisellensis based on the 
analysis o f mitochondrial (mtDNA) markers will be presented. The contribution o f these data to the elucidation of 
the colonisation pathways during and after the Pleistocene will be discussed. Some old, already forgotten records, as 
well as some new ones will be highlighted.
Key words: spéciation, islands, phylogeny, lizards, Lacertidae
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