INVESTIGADORES
ABDALA Virginia Sara Luz
artículos
Título:
Skull Anatomy of the Miniaturized Gecko Sphaerodactylus roosevelti (Squamata: Gekkota)
Autor/es:
J. DAZA; V. ABDALA; A. BAUER & R. THOMAS
Revista:
JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY
Editorial:
Wiley - Interscience
Referencias:
Año: 2008 vol. 239 p. 1340 - 1364
ISSN:
0362-2525
Resumen:
A detailed description of the skull, jaw, and associated muscles of the gecko Sphaerodactylus roosevelti is presented. The bones are described articulated and isolated with special consideration to the type of suture among joining elements. A noticeable increase of overlapping sutures was observed in the snout. This pattern is convergent with that in miniaturized pygopodids and it could be attributed to adaptations for decreasing mechanicalresistance of the cranium during feeding or burrowing. Sphaerodactylus roosevelti was compared with 109 gekkotan species in order to determine the osteological variation and to find characters for cladistic analysis. New cranial and myological characters support Sphaerodactylini as a monophyletic group and should be useful for resolving questions such as their relationship with other gekkotans. This study is a compilation of information that hopefully will help to establish a base for future morphological analyses of the gekkotans.
