Geckos living in the driest place on Earth stump scientists

Chilean-marked geckos that inhabit the Chilean Atacama Desert have proven extremely difficult to classify. Although one might assume that the different species simply seem different from each other, this is not always the case. Currently, Chilean marked geckos, also known as Garthia geckos, officially consist of two species:Garthia Gaudichaudii And Garthia Penai. However, different researchers have proposed more, even suggesting that a single species exists within the genus. Garthia.

To try to address the problem, a team of researchers conducted a genomic survey of the elusive reptiles that live in the driest place on Earth and pieced together their evolutionary history. Although their study challenges the suggestion that Garthia geckos might all be the same species, it doesn’t exactly solve the mystery. The results of their analysis indicate that there are at least two species: the species mentioned previously G. gauchaudii And G. penai– but there could be up to 11.

“For the first time, we used phylogenomic and population genetic methods to better understand diversity across the entire distribution of Garthia,” the researchers wrote in the study published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. “Our phylogenetic analyzes reveal deep evolutionary divergence strongly supporting the existence of at least the two nominal species,” although they also found “evidence supporting a cryptic species complex comprising between three and eleven species.”

Cryptic species are organisms that appear identical, but their genetics are different enough to be considered a different species. For example, researchers have found that G. gauchaudii And G. penai genetically diverged 20 million years ago.

“Traditional approaches often overlook cryptic species, underestimating biodiversity and limiting our ability to conserve these unique life forms. South America is home to a multitude of threatened species, but many regions, including the Atacama, remain under-explored at the genomic level,” said Damien Esquerré, co-author of the study and an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wollongong, in a press release.

The study shows that scientific tools reveal some of nature’s most elusive secrets, but certainly not all.

Shop Amazon’s Prime Day Sale

We’ve hand-picked dozens of PopSci-approved deals on tools, electronics, and more. Catch them before they disappear.