Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Visually Sexing Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius Ludovicianus) Using Plumage Coloration and Pattern
Published on: March 8, 2020
Morphological differentiation and genetic structure in island lizard populations
Domenico Fulgione1, Serena Guglielmi, Gaetano Odierna
1Department of Structural and Functional Biology, University of Naples, Federico II, Naples, Italy. fulgione@unina.it
Abstract:
Only some island populations of Podarcis sicula are hyperchromatic. The study of this phenomenon and its relationship with the lizards of the mainland and other islands, exhibiting a "normal" coloration, provides useful hints in our understanding of evolutionary mechanisms that have created the observed morphological variation. We performed a comparative morphological and genetic analysis of a hyperchromatic lizard population from Licosa Island, and compared the data with that obtained from normal-colored lizard populations both from Ustica and Cirella islands in the Tyrrhenian sea and from nearby mainland Italy. Morphological and microsatellite gene differentiation in the hyperchromatic Licosa population appears to have been much more rapid than the molecular evolution of the mtDNA. We discuss herein that the comparison of hyperchromatism and other types of morphological variation with molecular data in island populations of lizards may provide useful hints as to evolutionary mechanisms.
Related Concept Videos
Understanding Species and Reproductive Barriers
Types of Selection
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Formation of Species
Gene Flow
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
