Kotschy's Gecko, Mediodactylus kotschyi, is a small gecko native to southeastern Europe and the Levant. It displays great morphological variation with a large number of morphologically recognized subspecies. However, it has been suggested that it constitutes a species complex of several yet unrecognized species. In this study, we used multilocus sequence data (three mitochondrial and three nuclear gene fragments) to estimate the phylogenetic relationships of 174 specimens from 129 sampling localities, covering a substantial part of the distribution range of the species. Our results revealed high genetic diversity of M. kotschyi populations and contributed to our knowledge about the phylogenetic relationships and the estimation of the divergence times between them. Diversification within M. kotschyi began approximately 15 million years ago (Mya) in the Middle Miocene, whereas the diversification within most of the major clades have been occurred in the last 5 Mya. Species delimitation analysis suggests there exists five species within the complex, and we propose to tentatively recognize the following taxa as full species: M. kotschyi (mainland Balkans, most of Aegean islands, and Italy), M. orientalis (Levant, Cyprus, southern Anatolia, and south-eastern Aegean islands), M. danilewskii (Black Sea region and south-western Anatolia), M. bartoni (Crete), and M. oertzeni (southern Dodecanese Islands). This newly recognized diversity underlines the complex biogeographical history of the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Science and Arts Department of Biology 09010 Aydın Turkey

Department of Biodiversity Studies and Ecological Monitoring T 1 Vyazemski Karadagh Research Station Nature Reserve of Russian Academy of Sciences Nauki Srt 24 stm Kurortnoe Theodosia 298188 Republic of the Crimea Russia; Department of Herpetology Institute of Zoology of Russian Academy of Sciences Universitetskaya Emb 1 Saint Petersburg 199034 Russia

Department of Biological Sciences Texas Tech University MS 43131 Lubbock TX 79409 3131 USA; Department of Biological Sciences University of North Texas Union Circle 1155 76203 Denton TX USA

Department of Biology Section of Animal and Environmental Biology Laboratory of Histology and Comparative Anatomy University of Bari Aldo Moro via Orabona 4 a Bari Italy

Department of Zoology Comenius University in Bratislava Mlynská dolina Ilkovičova 6 84215 Bratislava Slovakia

Department of Zoology Comenius University in Bratislava Mlynská dolina Ilkovičova 6 84215 Bratislava Slovakia; Department of Zoology Charles University Prague Viničná 7 Prague 12844 Czech Republic

Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Science Department of Biology 35160 Buca İzmir Turkey

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research Institute of Marine Biology Biotechnology and Aquaculture P O Box 2214 71003 Irakleio Greece

Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences 603 65 Brno Czech Republic; National Museum Department of Zoology 193 00 Prague Czech Republic

Natural History Museum of Crete School of Sciences and Engineering University of Crete Knosos Avenue Irakleio 71409 Greece

Natural History Museum of Crete School of Sciences and Engineering University of Crete Knosos Avenue Irakleio 71409 Greece; Department of Biology School of Sciences and Engineering University of Crete Vassilika Vouton Irakleio 70013 Greece

School of Zoology Tel Aviv University 6997801 Tel Aviv Israel; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History Tel Aviv University 6997801 Tel Aviv Israel

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