The taxonomic status of the species included into the genus Trachylepis in Turkey are doubtful. So far, three morphological species have been attributed to this genus in Turkey; Trachylepis aurata. T. vittata, and T. septemtaeniata. Here, we investigated the taxonomy of the Turkish Trachylepis species by employing phylogenetic and phylogeographic approaches and using mitochondrial DNA (cytochrome b and 12 S rRNA). In total, 45 Trachylepis and 6 Mabuya specimens were used analyzed. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out using Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) methods. The phylogenetic relationships and the genetic distances retrieved, revealed that the Turkish species, which currently recognized as Trachylepis, are highly diversified, forming a distinct clade that shows closer phylogenetic affinity with the species of the genus Mabuya rather than the other Trachylepis species. In this clade, the three Turkish species are monophyletic with T. vittata to branch off first in late Miocene (10.54 Mya). The other two species (T. septemtaeniata and T. aurata) seem to have sister group relationship that diverged at the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.27 Mya). As a whole, the examination of mtDNA lineages in the Turkish lizards of the genus Trachylepis may contribute substantially to the refining of their taxonomic status, since the three species of Turkey, although monophyletic, represent a distinct radiation that would could probably recognized as a different genus in Mabuya sensu lato.
Keywords: Divergence times; Mabuya sensu lato; middle east; molecular phylogeny; systematic.