Among vertebrates, true parthenogenesis is known only in reptiles. Parthenogenetic lizards of the genus Darevskia emerged as a result of the hybridization of bisexual parental species. However, uncertainty remains about the mechanisms of the co-existence of these forms. The geographical parthenogenesis hypothesis suggests that unisexual forms can co-exist with their parental species in the “marginal” habitats. Our goal is to investigate the influence of environmental factors on the formation of ecological niches and the distribution of lizards. For this reason, we created models of species distribution and ecological niches to predict the potential geographical distribution of the parthenogenetic and its parental species. We also estimated the realized niches breadth, their overlap, similarities, and shifts in the entire space of predictor variables. We found that the centroids of the niches of the three studied lizards were located in the mountain forests. The “maternal” species D. mixta prefers forest habitats located at high elevations, “paternal” species D. portschinskii commonly occurs in arid and shrub habitats of the lower belt of mountain forests, and D. dahli occupies substantially an intermediate or “marginal” position along environmental gradients relative to that of its parental species. Our results evidence that geographical parthenogenesis partially explains the co-existence of the lizards.

中文翻译：

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高加索地区单性Darevskia dahli及其亲代双性（D. portschinskii，D。mixta）岩石蜥蜴的物种分布模型和生态位分配

在脊椎动物中，仅在爬行动物中才知道真正的孤雌生殖。Darevskia属的孤雌生殖蜥蜴由于双性恋亲本物种的杂交而出现。但是，这些形式并存的机制仍然不确定。地理孤雌生殖假说表明，单性形式可以与其亲本物种在“边缘”生境中共存。我们的目标是研究环境因素对生态位形成和蜥蜴分布的影响。因此，我们创建了物种分布和生态位的模型来预测孤雌生殖及其亲本物种的潜在地理分布。我们还估计了已实现的利基宽度，它们的重叠，相似性以及预测变量整个空间的变化。我们发现，三个研究过的蜥蜴的壁the的质心位于山区森林中。D. mixta倾向于位于高海拔森林栖息地，“父亲”物种D. portschinskii通常发生在山林下带的干旱和灌木生境，和D. dahli基本上占据的中间或沿相对于环境梯度“边缘”的位置与其亲本物种相同。我们的结果证明地理孤雌生殖部分解释了蜥蜴的共存。