Bozkurt, Emin; Kurnaz, Muammer; Avci, Aziz; Sahin, Mehmet Kuersat; Üzüm, Nazan; Olgun, Kurtulus

Until 2016, two subspecies of Neurergus strauchii were identified; at this time, one more subspecies was described from Tunceli as N. s. munzurensis. However, this study mainly focused on morphological characters. We aim to test of Neurergus species, including N. s. munzurensis taxa by phylogenetic analysis, using partial base sequences of 12S rRNA and D-loop genes. For this purpose, we reconstructed Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood trees with other Neurergus samples. According to the results, phylogenetic tree topologies demonstrate that N. crocatus was separated from the N. strauchii-N. barani lineage and the N. strauchii group have shown monophyly. Also, N. s. munzurensis showed higher genetic distances with N. barani (1.1%) and N. s. strauchii (0.8%) while genetic distances were only determined as 0.5% within N. barani and N. s. strauchii. N. s. munzurensis was found to be a genetically distinct taxon, following its previous morphological description. This study obtained the first evidence on better explaining the taxonomic status of N. s. munzurensis.

İncele

Kurnaz, Muammer

Although the fire salamander, Salamandra infraimmaculata, is relatively distributed in a broad area in the Middle East, it lives in a narrow area in southeast and south Anatolia in Turkey. The habitats of the species have been downgraded day by day, and its IUCN category is listed as "NT, and the population trend is decreasing. Within the scope of this study, a model was created with the existing locality records of the species using ecological niche modeling. As a result of this model, the current and future distribution of the species were compared. The results obtained from the analyzes made within the scope of this study showed that the current probable distribution of the species coincides with the existing locality records. However, for possible climate change scenarios, the possible future distribution of the species will be thought to be negatively affected by the increase in the greenhouse gas effect, the change in the amount of carbon dioxide, and the increase of many harmful gas concentrations in the atmosphere. If all four climate scenarios proposed in this study in the future occur sequentially, the species will have to limit or change its range, and even become will be extinct in some areas. Species conservation action plans should be initiated, and local governments should take necessary measures to prevent this from happening.

AtıfScopus6·WoS5

İncele

Kurnaz, Muammer; Şahin, Mehmet Kürşat

Acanthodactylus Wiegmann, 1834 is one of the most diverse and widespread lizard genus in the Palearctic realm. Here, we describe a new species, - Acanthodactylus ilgazi sp. nov. - from the Anatolian Peninsula. This new species ranges approximately 250 km north from the closest population of this genus in Turkey. Compared to other fringe-fingered lizards, the new species is phylogenetically close to A. robustus, A. tristrami and A. orientalis but it has some distinct morphological characteristics: Reddish coloration under the tail, a sharp white or grayish stripe in the middle of the dorsum, and four plates in a row on the 4th finger. Moreover, phylogenetic molecular data, based on cyt b gene fragment, verifies that the new species is phylogenetically a member of the tristrami species group with 13.03%, 17.35% and 20.56 genetic distance respectively from A. orientalis, A. tristrami and A. robustus. Lastly, the known range of this species, located in Yazıhan, Malatya in Eastern Anatolia, is restricted by a dam, thus habitat loss endangers its continuity. Therefore, the conservation status of this species should be assessed immediately.

AtıfScopus6

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