[Retracted] Phylogeography and morphometry of oriental garden lizard calotes versicolor (Daudin, 1802) in Thailand

The oriental garden lizard, Calotes versicolor (Daudin, 1802), is a widespread agamid lizard, distributing in South Asia and Southeast Asia. According to previous studies, distinct morphological variations have been observed throughout their distribution range. Recently, molecular evidences were useful in supporting morphological data to clarify problems related with species complex. Morphological variation as well as phylogenetic relationships and population genetic structure among C. versicolor throughout Thailand were investigated. In total, 153 samples of C. versicolor from 65 localities throughout Thailand were used in this study. The mitochondrial ND2 and COI as well as nuclear RAG1 sequences were amplified, and haplotype networks and phylogenetic trees were constructed. High haplotype diversity (h, 0.977-0.990), but low nucleotide diversity (π, 0.003-0.037) among three genes were observed. Phylogenetic trees revealed eight mitochondrial clades which were concordant with mitochondrial haplotype networks. However, nuclear three clades were observed and concordant with nuclear haplotype network. Population pairwise FST and Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) supported eight mitochondrial haplotype grouping, and three nuclear grouping. Morphological variation on mensural, meristic and patterns of stripes and scales, as well as, spine length characters were examined. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based on significant characters in C. versicolor categorized by regions and molecular clades revealed no distinct separation among those groups, and most morphological characters overlapped between groups. However, combined morphological and molecular data suggested that Thai C. versicolor and Burmese C. versicolor were clearly separated from Indian C. versicolor. Moreover, based on combined morphological and molecular evidences, Thai C. versicolor species complex may be consisted of at least four distinct taxa.