沙蜥属部分物种分类性状评价

沙蜥属Phrynocephalus Kaup，1825隶属于爬行纲（Reptilia）有鳞目（Squamata）蜥蜴亚目（Lacertilia）鬣蜥科（Agamidae），是欧亚大陆荒漠和稀疏草原常见蜥蜴。沙蜥属的分类及系统演化关系、地理分布格局与新生代第三纪以来古地中海的变迁、青藏高原的抬升及亚洲内陆干旱荒漠化的过程有密切的关系，长期以来有关沙蜥属的研究一直受到中外学者们的关注。由于沙蜥属地理分布广、形态变异大、体色和斑纹变化复杂，虽然前人使用过许多形态性状来描述和分类沙蜥属物种，但是仍然存在许多问题。性状的分类学意义不明确是造成这些问题的主要原因之一，因此本研究针对沙蜥属常用的鉴别性状进行分类意义的分析，希望能对沙蜥属物种鉴定及分类学其它研究有所裨益。 中国沙蜥属物种主要分布于西北的干旱荒漠区域及青藏高原的大部分地区，大约为18种。 本文研究了中国境内12种沙蜥：青海沙蜥（Phrynocephalus vlangalii）、西藏沙蜥（P. theobaldi）、南疆沙蜥（P. forsythii）、变色沙蜥（P. versicolor）、旱地沙蜥（P. helioscopus）、荒漠沙蜥（P. przewalskii）、乌拉尔沙蜥（P. guttatus）、草原沙蜥（P. frontalis）、叶城沙蜥（P. axillaris）、白稍沙蜥（P. koslowi）、无斑沙蜥（P. immaculatus）和白条沙蜥（P. albolineatus），对它们的65项外部形态性状进行了观察和测量，其中数量性状29项、质量性状36项。评价了这些性状的序级性、间断性和代表性，结论如下： 1. 对于数量性状，得出了适合各级分类的数值区间； 2. 给出了在不同序级上适合分类的质量性状。 并利用各性状评价的结果，给出12种沙蜥的检索表，以及对中国沙蜥物种某些尚存在争议的问题进行了探讨。 详细记录了青海沙蜥红原亚种的骨骼系统，首次发现并命名了肘骨（elbow bone）和垫骨（stepping bone），为沙蜥属系统学研究补充了骨骼方面的证据；解剖了乌拉尔沙蜥、旱地沙蜥、荒漠沙蜥的雌体和雄体的骨骼系统，并在14项骨骼形态性状上对这3种沙蜥进行了比较。 Phrynocephalus （Squamata，Agamidae） is a familiar genus of lizards inhabited desert and sparse steppes in Eurasia. The taxonomics, phylogenetics and distribution pattern of Phrynocephalus are relative intensely to these events: the vicissitudes of the archaic Mediterranean sea since the Cainozoic, the uplift of Qingzang Plateau and the expending arid areas in the inland of Asia. Owing to the wide distribution, the large variability of the morphology and the different colors in Phrynocephalus, it is difficult to identify them. Tough many morphological characters are used to describe and discriminate them，a lot of questions still exist. One of the most important reasons is the confusion in the morphological characters. In this study, we demonstrate the validity and the invalidity of the familiar characters. There are about 18 species of the genus Phrynocephalus in China, which exist in arid desert in Northwest China and Qingzang Plateau. Twelve Chinese species was analyzed in this paper. They are P. vlangalii，P. theobaldi，P. forsythia，P. versicolor，P. helioscopus，P. przewalskii，P. guttatus，P. frontalis，P. axillaris，P. koslowi，P. immaculatus，P. albolineatus. We measure 29 quantitative characters and observe 36 qualitative characters in each individual. Through analyzing these characters, we made some conclusions as follows: 1. to every quantitative character, we get a clear numeric area to discriminate the different operational taxonomic units. 2. we chose the valid qualitative characters in these operational taxonomic units. This paper is the first to describe the “elbow bone”, which is a bone in pectoral appendage equivalent to patella，and “stepping bone”, which is a bone under carpal. A detailed description of the skeletal system of female Phrynocephalus vlangalii hongyuanensis was conducted. We also anatomise the skeletal systems of three species: P. guttatus，P. przewalskii，P. helioscopus, and compare or contrast 14 skeletal characters in them. What’s more，this paper offers some suggestions to the questions of Chinese Phrynocephalus species and keys to 12 species of Phrynocephalus basing on our conclusions on the evaluation of the morphological characters.