Biologija ostrvskih populacija lacertidnih guštera
Biology of the Island Populations of Lacertid Lizards
2019
Document Type:
Conference object (Updated Version)
,
© 2019 by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
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Show full item recordAbstract:
The island habitats have for a long time been recognized as places where
processes of speciation under the influences of specific living conditions and
isolation can be observed. The large part of Milutin Radovanović’s research was
focused on the island populations of morphologically and ecologically similar
species, Dalmatian wall lizard and Italian wall lizard. During his long-standing
work, Milutin Radovanović systematised the existing knowledge base on these
animals, resolved taxonomic status of certain island forms and described a num-
ber of subspecies based on morphological characters. He intensively studied the
phenomena of morphological variability, island melanism, dwarf and giant island
forms, switch to herbivory diet, competitive exclusion and passive anthropogenic
dispersal of the lizards among islands. Based on his results, he gave assumptions
on means and directions of colonization of the Eastern Adriatic coast by these two
lizard species and rapid evolution which took place on the geologically relatively
young Adriatic islands. Although new molecular studies question validity of many
subspecies, based on the relatively small genetic distance, one of the Radovanović’s
most important assumptions – the one about rapid morphological evolution of the
island forms, has been completely confirmed by later experimental studies.
Keywords:
Milutin Radovanović; islands; lizards; variability; evolutionFunding / projects:
- Diversity of the amphibians and reptiles on the Balkan Peninsula: evolutionary and conservation aspects (RS-MESTD-Basic Research (BR or ON)-173043)
In:
- Petanović R, Marinković D, editors. Proceedings of the Scientific conference held on the occasion of marking the 50th anniversary since the death of academician Milutin Radovanović; 2018 Dec 21; Belgrade, Serbia. Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; 2019. p. 149-61