Karyological study of the Caspian bent-toed Gecko Cyrtopodion caspium (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from North and North-Eastern of Iran

The diploid number among Gekkonid lizards ranges from 2n=16 to 2n=46. The majority of geckos'' chromosomes are small which makes the study of their chromosomes very difficult. For this reason, karyotype of Cyrtopodion caspium and some similar gecko are still not known. The close relatives of C. caspium have variation in the chromosomal number in their populations. So to find out possible variability among these populations in Iran. We described the karyotype of testis and bone marrow of 14 specimens of this species from seven provinces and 10 localities in north and north-eastern parts of Iran in 2011. They showed 2n=38 for all populations. There is not intraspecific chromosome polymorphism in Cyrtopodion caspium. The karyotype consists of one pair of metacentric element and 17 pairs of telocentric or subtelocentric elements and one pair of three arm chromosomes. The number of haploid chromosomes was 21 for three male specimens. The chromatid separation did not show heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Our results highlight the need for continued research into the basic biology and taxonomy of Cyrtopodion caspium in Iran.