Insulasaurus Taylor, 1922
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00747.x |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3D7587E2-D163-FFE3-FCC0-F91519640773 |
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treatment provided by |
Valdenar |
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scientific name |
Insulasaurus Taylor, 1922 |
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Type species: Insulasaurus wrighti Taylor, 1922 .
Definition: The clade comprising Insulasaurus wrighti Taylor, 1922 and all species that share a more recent common ancestor with Insulasaurus wrighti than with Anomalopus verreauxii , Calyptotis scutirostrum , Coeranoscincus frontalis , Coggeria naufragus , Ctenotus taeniolatus , Eremiascincus richardsonii , Eulamprus quoyii , Glaphyromorphus isolepis , Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae , Hemiergis decresiencsis , Lerista lineata , Lipinia pulchella , Lobulia elegans , Nangura spinosa , Notoscincus ornatus , Ophioscincus australis , Otosaurus cumingi , Papuascincus stanleyanus , Parvoscincus sisoni , Pinoyscincus jagori , Prasinohaema flavipes , Saiphos equalis , Scincella lateralis , Sphenomorphus melanopogon , and Tytthoscincus hallieri .
Description: Insulasaurus is diagnosed by the following combination of characters: (1) medium body size, 45–64 mm SVL; (2) paravertebral scale rows 62–78; (3) midbody scale rows 29–41; and (4) subdigital lamellae 15–25.
Included species: Insulasaurus arborens (Taylor, 1917) , Insulasaurus traanorum ( Linkem, Diesmos & Brown, 2010a) , Insulasaurus wrighti Taylor, 1925 , and Insulasaurus victoria ( Brown & Alcala, 1980) .
Comment: The monotypic genus Insulasaurus was described by Taylor (1925) based on the presence of a divided frontonasal scale. Greer & Parker (1967) found this character to be variable within Insulasaurus wrighti , and subsequently placed Insulasaurus wrighti in the Sphenomorphus variegatus group and synonymized Insulasaurus with Sphenomorphus . We found that Insulasaurus wrighti , Insulasaurus victoria , Insulasaurus traanorum (all from Palawan Island), and Insulasaurus arborens (Panay Island) are monophyletic, and distinct from other Philippine skinks. Our phylogeny suggests that this small, unique, and biogeographically circumscribed clade is more closely related to the genera Lipinia and Papuascincus , but separate from both, and therefore worthy of designation as a unique genus.
At this time, we have no data suggesting that other Sphenomorphus species would be properly placed in the genus Insulasaurus , although species in Borneo (e.g. Sphenomorphus kinabaluensis and Sphenomorphus murudensis ) are potential candidates should future phylogenetic studies determine that they are more closely related to Insulasaurus than they are to Sphenomorphus s.s.
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