Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775), as one of the euryoecious semi-venomous snakes of the Psammophiidae family, has a wide distribution range and many local populations in the Iranian plateau. This study aimed to evaluate the demographic and morphological diversity of P. schokari in Iran. We measured twenty-one metric, meristic and relative characters of 22 specimens (11 ♀ and 11 ♂) to analyze sexual size dimorphism and compare demographic morphological variation between three different populations in Iran. Except for a significant difference in trunk length, no sexual dimorphism was recorded in our analysis. We observed a significant difference in morphological characters among different populations. Because P. schokari is often distributed at low altitudes and tropical and desert areas; We believe the main cause for the separation of populations is the heights on the Iranian plateau, which acts as a natural barriers for gene flow between populations therefore. These populations are isolated due to the separation effect of the orogenic process.
Moradi, S. H., Rastegar Pouyani, E., Heydari, A., & Zargan, J. (2022). A note on the demographic morphological variation in Schokari Sand Racer, Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775) from Iran. Biodiversity and Animal Taxonomy, 1(1), 48-57. doi: 10.22126/jbat.2022.2084
MLA
Seyed Hassan Moradi; Eskandar Rastegar Pouyani; Abbas Heydari; Jamil Zargan. "A note on the demographic morphological variation in Schokari Sand Racer, Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775) from Iran". Biodiversity and Animal Taxonomy, 1, 1, 2022, 48-57. doi: 10.22126/jbat.2022.2084
HARVARD
Moradi, S. H., Rastegar Pouyani, E., Heydari, A., Zargan, J. (2022). 'A note on the demographic morphological variation in Schokari Sand Racer, Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775) from Iran', Biodiversity and Animal Taxonomy, 1(1), pp. 48-57. doi: 10.22126/jbat.2022.2084
VANCOUVER
Moradi, S. H., Rastegar Pouyani, E., Heydari, A., Zargan, J. A note on the demographic morphological variation in Schokari Sand Racer, Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775) from Iran. Biodiversity and Animal Taxonomy, 2022; 1(1): 48-57. doi: 10.22126/jbat.2022.2084
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