The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata): Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of an endangered species

A phylogeny was reconstructed for 23 populations of fringe-toed lizards (ge nus Uma) from the three most northern species of the genus, including the M ojave fringe-toed lizard U. scoparia, the Colorado Desert fringe-toed lizar d U. notata, and the endangered Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard U. inor nata. The outgroup taxa were the zebra-tailed lizard, Callisaurus draconoid es; the lesser earless lizard, Holbrookia maculata; and the greater earless lizard, Cophosaurus texanus. Evaluation of 1630 combined nucleotide sequen ce from the mitochondrial genes ATPase 6 and cytochrome b yielded 10 most p arsimonious trees. Reweighting the characters using the rescaled consistenc y index eliminated eight of these trees. The remaining two trees differ onl y in the placement of two individuals from the Superstition Mountains which either formed a monophlyetic unit or grouped with one individual from the Anza-Borrego population. The preferred phylogeny, one more consistent with geography, had two primary clades: one consisting of U. scoparia and the ot her placing U. inornata inside the clade containing U. notata. Uma inornata was most closely related to nearby U. notata notata, as opposed to more di stant U. notata rufopunctata. (C) 2001 Academic Press.