MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF THE CANARY ISLAND LACERTIDS (GALLOTIA) - MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA RESTRICTION FRAGMENT DIVERGENCE IN RELATION TO SEQUENCE DIVERGENCE AND GEOLOGICAL TIME

Restriction fragment length polymorphisms of 6 base pair recognising e ndonucleases are used to reconstruct the phylogeny of the endemic Cana ry Island lacertid, Gallotia. The division into conventional species i s upheld by this molecular analysis and the western Canary Island liza rd (G. galloti) and eastern Canary Island lizard (G. atlantica) are hy pothesized to be sister species. A more comprehensive study of the int raspecific relationships of G. galloti, based on nineteen restriction enzymes, indicates that there are distinct southern and northern linea ges within this species. The phylogenetic analysis does not uphold the conventional subspecies, but suggests an alternative arrangement with one northern (La Palma, Tenerife) and one southern (Gomera, Hierro) s ubspecies. The inferred timing of molecular divergence of populations of G. galloti, based on RFLP analysis, is compatible with the geologic al timing for island origin and fossil data. Mantel tests show that mi tochondrial RFLP divergence is correlated with mitrochondrial 12s rRNA and cytochrome oxidase I sequence divergence and highly correlated wi th mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence divergence.