Reconstruction of the taxonomic status of Darevskia valentini (Boettger, 1892) inferring from morphological and molecular methods

D. valentini that a large part of the distribution area is our country is one of the rock lizard species in Lacertidae family. The taxonomy of the species, which is thought to have three subspecies, has been structured by morphological evaluations so far and any phylogenetic study using molecular markers is not conducted. Within the scope of the thesis, the population samples obtained from the distribution areas of D. valentini species in our country were evaluated for both morphological and molecular comparisons. Using sufficient samples of each population were performed the phylogenetic analysis by obtaining 12S rRNA, Cyt-b and COI in the mtDNA and C-mos and MC1R gene sequences in the nuclear DNA. As a result of the molecular markers used, it was tested by Discriminant Analysis whether there is a difference between the obtained lineages in terms of morphological characters. As a result of the molecular analyzes obtained, it was found that there are genetically new lineages that require taxonomically restructuring of D. valentini species. For these clades, it was found that it is not possible to distinguish morphologically with other populations within D. valentini as well as other Darevskia species considered to be closely related with D. valentini.