Cladistic Relationships among Gekkonid Lizards

A reevaluation of individual and interspecific variation in branchial arch osteology in gekkonid lizards and the use of the out-group criterion led to the conclusion that the continuous nature of the second ceratobranchial-epibranchial rod in Anarbylus and Coleonyx is an evolutionary reversal. An independently evolved autapomorphy is also proposed for the continuous second branchial arch in Gonatodes vittatus. The largest assemblage of gekkos currently recognized, the Gekkoninae, is divided into two groups on the basis of the presence or absence of the second ceratobranchial. The absence of the second cerato-