By Theo Busschau MSc Supervisor: Prof. Savel Daniels Co-supervisor: Werner Conradie
Introduction Eastern Cape Forest Project funded by the FBIP The effect of habitat fragmentation on faunal diversity of Eastern Cape forests South African forests are largely fragmented with high diversity >420 described reptile species in South Africa but forest reptile diversity is relatively low Few studies on forest reptiles in South Africa
Forest Thread Snake Leptotyphlops sylvicolus Pondo Flat-gecko Afroedura pondolia
Aims and Objectives Are there cryptic lineages within the study taxa? How are these lineages geographically distributed? What is the degree of phylogeographic congruence between these taxa?
Materials and Methods Genes Molecular analyses • mtDNA: • Maximum likelihood – Garli • Cytb • ND4 • Bayesian inference – MrBayes • nuDNA: • PRLR • Divergence time estimation – • RAG1 BEAUti + BEAST
Leptotyphlops sylvicolus 88 Samples 21 Localities
Afroedura pondolia 99 Samples 23 Localities
Way forward… • Haplotype networks • AMOVA • Clustering analysis on the nuDNA • Species delimitation • PCA on morphological data
Acknowledgments • NRF-FBIP • Bursary and funding • Port Elizabeth Museum – Bayworld • Hosting and ethical clearance • KZN Wildlife and Eastern Cape Parks and T ourism • Permits
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