阿拉伯半岛的盐滩中有壁虎生存

The Gulf ¹ Sand gecko is a remarkable ² desert reptile ³ in that it is the only lizard ⁴ found habitually ⁵ on sabkha substrate across large parts of the eastern Arabian Peninsula. These arid ⁶ salt flats constitute one of the harshest habitats on earth, due to their extraordinary salinity ⁷. The Gulf gecko, Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis, belongs to a genus with a single species, and it is well adapted to this substrate featuring spiny ⁸ scales beneath the fingers, long extremities ⁹ and swollen ¹⁰ nostrils ¹¹., ,Data on its distribution range showed a conspicuous ¹² gap between eastern United Arab Emirates and coastal ¹³ Oman, across a distance of more than 450km. Yet previous research had shown that genetic ¹⁴ variability was relatively ¹⁵ low for this gecko species., ,During a recent fieldtrip in Oman, an international team of herpetologists, led by Dr. Salvador Carranza of the Institute of Evolutionary ¹⁶ Biology in Barcelona, visited this area, almost devoid ¹⁷ of vegetation аs well as access roads and tracks, and was able to spot for the first time specimens ¹⁸ of this exceptional gecko in inland Oman. These localities, situated ¹⁹ almost 250 km, east and west, from previously ²⁰ recorded occurrences fill in the distributional gap for this species and help to better understand the genetic and morphological variability patterns observed. The study was published in the open access journal Biodiversity Data Journal., ,The researchers have analyzed ²¹ genetic data for several specimens of the species and their results indicate that there is connectivity between populations inhabiting different parts of the Arabian Peninsula., ,"We were really surprised to find this species so far away from the coast, where the only records for Oman were known. But the habitat was indeed ideal for them: vast salt flats stretching between elongate ²² sand dunes ²³" said Dr. Margarita Metallinou, first author of the study. "We realized that the lack of records was simply due to the extremely difficult accessibility to this area." This artifact, common in biodiversity studies in little known parts of the world, can severely ²⁴ distort our understanding of species diversity., ,In the case of the Gulf gecko, the findings of this work confirm that this species probably inhabits larger inland areas than we currently know of.