For her Honours research, Kate studied fine-scale genetic structure in two lizard species, the southern water skink (
Eulamprus heatwolei) and the highland water skink (
Eulamprus tympanum). This was the first phylogeographic study on any vertebrates in Tallaganda and took our comparative program at Tallaganda a step further by testing the hypothesis that vertebrate species may show congruence with invertebrates. Lizards provide good vertebrate model species for comparative phylogeographic study with invertebrates owing to their tendency for restricted dispersal.
Very few fine-scale comparative phylogeographic studies have compared genetic structuring in co-distributed invertebrates and vertebrates, despite the greater predictive power achieved in comparing highly diverse taxa. The comparative study between invertebrates and the water skink research addresses this gap, and will help to determine the degree to which shared biogeographical history shapes the phylogeography of co-distributed taxa with differing life histories.
This study also highlights the relative influence of species-specific processes on current genetic structure, and adds to the information about what biological features are more significant in shaping a population’s history and future. Importantly, the greater comparative context of this study helps assessing whether invertebrates may be reliable indicator species for higher taxa.
We would like to acknowledge the South Australian Museum for access to samples from geographically diverse sites that are being used to put the Tallaganda results into a regional context.
