The rapid development of innovative molecular tools for characterizing biodiversity is leading to an extensive and sometimes unexpected renovation of taxonomic classifications. Particularly, for species having allopatric or parapatric distributions or resulting from recent speciation processes, the absence of clear phenotypic differentiation may hinder the recognition of closely related taxa, while intraspecific polymorphism may be confused with the presence of more than one single species. In the present work, researchers apply different phylogenetic methods in order to infer relationships within the genus Anatololacerta, and to assess the taxonomy of this morphologically diversified group of lizards endemic to western and southern Anatolia and some neighboring Aegean islands.

Reference article: Bellati A., Carranza, S., Garcia-Porta, J., Fasola, M., Sindaco,R.2015. Cryptic diversity within the Anatololacerta species complex (Squamata:Lacertidae) in the Anatolian Peninsula: Evidence from a multi-locus approach. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.10.003