Distribuição geográfica e endemismo de Mabuya guaporicola Dunn 1936 (Squamata: Scincidae) na região do cerrado

Abstract

Although recent studies in the Cerrado are revealing rich and highly complex herpetofaunas, many involved species remain poorly studied in most basic aspects of natural history, including detailed information on range size and local and regional distribution patterns. Among the Cerrado lizard families, Scincidae is represented by six species, only one of which considered endemic to Cerrado savannas: Mabuya guaporicola. Herein we use revised data on occurrence records to provide an updated distribution map of this species, as well as to investigate its possible occurrence in poorly sampled regions in the Cerrado. Our results corroborate previous interpretations of endemism and strong association to Cerrado savannas, including regions outside the Brazilian core distribution of the biome. Our results reveal a wide but probably disjunct, rarified distribution, along different portions of the Cerrado, which could lead to morphological and genetic differentiation among allopatric populations. However, further studies, especially using detailed morphological analyses and molecular markers, are necessary to understand the current distribution of the species and historical significance of observed morphological variation.