Madagascar Girdled Lizard

The family Gerrhosauridae shares the strongest evolutionary linkages to Asian and South American Species. However, the population on the island most likely originated from colonization by ancestors "rafting" from the African Mainland. Within the Island of Madagascar, the Malagasy Plated Lizards are denoted by two individual genera of Gerrhosauridae: 1. Tracheloptychus, which consists of 2 separate species that occupy the subarid south and south-west regions of the Island 2. Zonosaurus, which consists of 17 species occupy the majority of the biomes distributed throughout the Island. Originally, scientists concluded, based on morphological data, that the Zonosaurus was a sister to the Tracheloptychus genera. In order to determine the evolutionary line of the species of Gerrhosauridae on the Island, specimens representing the species that inhabited the Island were acquired and tissue samples were taken and DNA samples were taken and underwent PCR. From the information, the tree for the evolution pathway was then "inferred per gene and per type of gene," resulting in the following lineage as described by the below link containing a photo: http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1055790313002534-gr2.jpg.