TUBITAK Destekli Projelerden Çıkan Yayınlar Topluluğu
Published January 1, 2025 | Version v1
Journal article Open

TAXONOMY, DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSERVATION OF THREATENED STEPPE VIPERS OF WESTERN ASIA:<i> VIPERA</i> ANATOLICA AND <i>VIPERA RENARDI ERIWANENSIS (SENSU</i> <i>LATO</i>)

Creators

  • 1. Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli Univ, Acigol Vocat Sch Tech Sci, Lab Technol Program, Aksaray Str 5, TR-50140 Nevsehir, Turkiye
  • 2. Adiyaman Univ, Fac Arts & Sci, Dept Biol, Zool Sect, Ataturk Cad Ave, Adiyaman, Turkiye
  • 3. Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli Univ, Fac Sci & Arts, Dept Mol Biol & Genet, Zubeyde Hanim Cad 50300, Nevsehir, Turkiye
  • 4. Oskar Schindler Gesamtschule OSG, D-31141 Hildesheim, Germany
  • 5. V N Karazin Kharkiv Natl Univ, Svobody Sq 4, UA-61022 Kharkiv, Ukraine
  • 6. Ilia State Univ, Inst Ecol, Tbilisi 0162, Georgia
  • 7. Johannes Gutenberg Univ Mainz, Inst Organism & Mol Evolutionary Biol, Hanns Dieter Husch Weg 15, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
  • 8. Ege Univ, Fac Sci, Dept Biol, Sect Zool, Cent Campus, TR-35040 Bornova, Izmir, Turkiye
  • 9. Aydin Adnan Menderes Univ, Fac Sci, Dept Biol, Sehit Ogretmenler St, TR-09010 Aydin, Turkiye
  • 10. Grad Univ Adv Technol, Inst Sci & High Technol & Environm Sci, Dept Biodivers, POB 76315-117, Kerman 7631133131, Iran
  • 11. Comenius Univ, Dept Zool, Ilkovicova 6, Bratislava 84215, Slovakia

Description

A guilt of three phenotypically and ecologically similar, but phylogenetically distinct lineages of grassland vipers inhabit Western Asia: Tiirkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran. Their official threat statuses were assessed > 14 y ago by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2025): Anatolian Steppe Viper Vipera anatolica (CR: Critically Endangered, one of only 10 globally with that status), Southern Steppe Viper V. renardi eriwanensis (sensu lato; VU: Vulnerable), and Darevsky's Viper V. darevskii (CR). Nonetheless, information on their distribution, ecology and systematics has remained scarce, a situation seriously affecting effective conservation strategies. Ten years ago, we began building a database by screening literature and online/social media accounts, improving precision of published records by contacting article/account authors, and complementing it with our own records from annual field expeditions. Herein we summarize the largely increased information on the first two vipers, V. anatolica and V. renardi eriwanensis (sensu lato), latter encompassing all populations south of the Greater Caucasus previously assigned to taxa eriwanensis, shemakhensis, and ebneri. In total, we present 293 localities at > 0.5 km (anatolica) and 1 km (eriwanensis) distance between localities, including three (anatolica) and 95 new localities (eriwanensis). Furthermore, with new details from journal and social media records, we refined/published 16 (anatolica) and 175 (eriwanensis) localities, respectively. Comprehensive distribution updates and some genetic data on the eriwanensis complex allowed a finer taxonomic evaluation and detection of a first hybridization (contact zone) with V. r. lotievi, all of which ultimately helps to better tailor conservation needs.

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