Shape variation in head scales of species of the genus Ophiomorus DUMÉRIL & BIBRON, 1839 in Iran, a geometric morphometrics approach

Authors: HOSSEIN NABIZADEH, NASRULLAH RASTEGAR-POUYANI, ESKANDAR RASTEGAR POUYANI, MEHDI RAJABIZADEH, ROMAN NAZAROV, OMID MOZAFFARI

Abstract: Twelve species of the genus Ophiomorus DUMÉRIL & BIBRON, 1839 have been identified and introduced so far and seven species of this genus have been found in Iran which include four endemic species and three nonendemic species. Although geometric morphometry is a powerful tool to analyze morphological changes, the discovery and identification of these species have long relied on traditional morphometric analysis. In this study, geometric morphometric analyses were used to determine the geometric morphometrics of different species of the genus Ophiomorus in Iran. The Multi Focus technique was used to obtain the best image of the dorsal surface of the head. Two types of Landmarks 1 and 3 were used to obtain geometric information from the scales of the head. To obtain two-dimensional coordinates, landmarks were digitized using tpsDig. For all landmarks, Procrustes Landmark or GPA analysis was performed using PAST software. Also, all landmarks were analyzed by PCA or Principal Components in PAST software based on the variance-covariance matrix between different groups and OTUs. The results showed that the most changes occurred in the head scales of O. persicus and O. maranjabensis. In O. nuchalis populations, an OTU1 was found based on changes in the head scales, being no overlap in the wireframe graph. This population (OTU 1) is distributed in central regions of the Iranian plateau and phylogenetic studies are needed to confirm it as a new species.

Keywords: Geometric, Ophiomorus, head scales, Iran, biogeography, biodiversity

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