Thesis (BS Biology) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2007

Qualitative, mensural and meristic characters of lacertilian species collected from different sites in Mindanao were examined to determine phenotypic variation within and among species. Three clustering methods (Neighbor-joining, UPGMA and Parsimony) were used to analyze qualitative character variation. Of the three methods, the Neighbor-joining and the UPGMA methods revealed the same typology. Resulting dendograms revealed that while clustering occurred for samples of the same species in most lizards regardless of location, an unexpected non-clustering was also observed in some samples of the same species as in the case of Sphenomorphus coxi and Sphenomophus jagori samples. Unexpected clustering was also observed among samples of different species as in the case of Draco volans and Gecko marcus. This could be attributed to varying environmental conditions of the different collection sites as well as to phenotypic plasticity manifested by the samples. Generated genetic distance implies that the higher the genetic distance is, the more dissimilar the samples are between and within species. It was also found out that except for eye diameter, all the other mensural characters (SVL, HL, HW, STD, NED, LAL, and FTL) significantly differed between species. One-way analysis of variance revealed no significant difference in the mensural character between species. On meristic characters, one sample classified as Draco ornatus, was found to contain 10 ribs supporting the patagia. D. ornatus has a mode of 12 ribs supporting the patagia (Alcala 1986). Thus, this sample may be a distinct species