F I G U R E 1 in Cutting the Gordian Knot: Phylogenetic and ecological diversification of the Mesalina brevirostris species complex (Squamata, Lacertidae)

F I G U R E 1 (a) Map of the Arabian Peninsula showing localities of material examined in this study. Large circles indicate material used for the phylogenetic analyses; smaller paler circles indicate additional records used for the SDM. Dashed line delimits the background for developing the models. Potential distributions of Mesalina bernoullii, M. brevirostris, M. microlepis and M. saudiarabica sp. n. based on the MTSS threshold are shown in corresponding colours. The green and blue striped region shows the overlap of the potential distributions of M. bernoullii and M. microlepis. (b) Plot of the environmental space of the study background and its respective parts occupied by the four species as identified by the PCA. The first two principal components and their contributions to general variation are shown. The species environmental spaces are based on their modelled distributions. Names of taxa correspond to changes proposed in this study