Trigonodactylus sharqiyahensis (METALLINOU & CARRANZA, 2013)
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Trigonodactylus sharqiyahensis
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Stenodactylus sharqiyahensis METALLINOU & CARRANZA 2013 Trigonodactylus sharqiyahensis — NAZAROV et al. 2018 |
| Distribution | Oman (Sharqiyah Sands) Type locality: Al Sharqiyah Sands, Oman, 22.45379°N 58.67551°E (WGS84) |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: NMP P6V 74955 (sample code S7568), male, collected on the 4th of May 2011 by S. Carranza, E. Gómez-Díaz and F. Amat (Fig. 4A,B). Paratypes. NMP6V 74953 (sample code S7925); NMP6V 74954 (sample code S7965); ONHM 3715 (sample code S7908); MCCI-R1809 (sample code S7993). All paratypes are female and were collected at Al Sharqiyah Sands, Oman, 22.44492N 58.66177E WGS84, on the 17th of October 2010 by S. Carranza and F. Amat (Figs. 4C, 6A, 8A). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A small-sized Stenodactylus characterized by the following combination of morphological characters: (1) maximum recorded SVL 34.97 mm (27.76–32.22 mm in males and 27.45–34.97 mm in females); (2) body distinctly depressed and not slender; (3) head narrow (4.94–6.68 mm); (4) relatively short limbs; (5) tail about the same length as SVL or slightly shorter (TL/SVL=0.86–1.07) and not slender; (6) 10–12 upper labials in males and 10–13 in females; (7) 8–11 lower labials in males and 10–11 in females; (8) snout relatively short and round; (9) moderately protuberant nostrils (92.60% of specimens); (10) webbing between fingers not very extended (100% of specimens). Stenodactylus sharqiyahensis sp. nov. is generally similar to its sister taxon, S. arabicus, but may be differentiated from it by its smaller maximum SVL (34.97 mm versus 37.73 mm); snout relatively round and short (snout length 3.56 ±0.05 mm versus 3.93 ±0.06 mm, P<0.05; Fig. 5C,D); limbs relatively short (versus relatively long and slender, in all four independent limb measurement characters, P<0.05; Fig. 6); tail thicker (1.57 ±0.05 mm versus 1.27 ±0.05 mm, P<0.05; Fig. 6) and shorter (30.33 ±0.79 mm versus 35.56 ±0.82 mm, P<0.05; Fig. 6); 10– 12 upper labials in males (versus 12–14, P<0.05); 10–13 upper labials in females (versus 14–17, P<0.05); 8–11 lower labials in males (versus 10–12, P<0.05); 11–10 lower labials in females (versus 13–10, P<0.05); upper profile of snout mainly straight or mixed (41.15% or 29.63%), often also convex (22.22%) but not concave (Fig. 5A) (versus straight in only 19.23% or concave in 61.54% of specimens but not convex; P<0.001; Fig. 5B); most of the animals with moderately protuberant nostrils (92.60%) and very few with strongly protuberant nostrils (3.70%) (versus strongly protuberant nostrils in most of the animals (61.54%), P<0.001; Fig. 5A,B); webbing between fingers not very extended (versus extended webbing; Fig. 7 in Metallinou et a. 2013). |
| Comment | |
| Etymology | The species epithet “sharqiyahensis” is an adjective that refers to the desert where all the specimens that belong to this species have been found to date, and to where the species is probably endemic, Al Sharqiyah Sands, in northeastern Oman. Margarita Metallinou (1985–2015) was remembered by Carranza & Bauer 2016. |
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