As part of the Nadal i Natura event, the MUCBO inaugurated the exhibition “Sargantanes de Mallorca”, a temporary exhibition about these reptiles found on the islets surrounding the gimnèsia major. The exhibition presents the results and research of the project “Comprehensive characterisation of the Mallorcan populations of the Balearic lizard (Podarcis lilfordi): Advances towards its conservation and sustainable management.” The exhibition was presented by the Museum’s curator and co–principal investigator of the project, Rafel Matamales, and by the project’s coordinator and co–principal investigator, Andreu Rotger, professor at the Universitat de les Illes Balears.
The gimnèsic lizard (Podarcis lilfordi) is an endemic species of the Balearic Islands that currently inhabits only the islets around Mallorca and Menorca, as well as the Cabrera archipelago. Until 5,000 years ago, it also lived on the two main islands. Its ancestors arrived around 5.5 million years ago, when the Mediterranean dried up, leaving the Balearic Islands connected to the Iberian Peninsula.
Since then, the isolation of each islet has caused each population to evolve under its own unique environmental conditions. This has produced a mosaic of forms and behaviours that vary from one place to another. In Mallorca, for example, five subspecies have been described based on morphological differences, although the populations of the islet of sa Porrassa and the former islet des Frares, in the Colònia de Sant Jordi, have not yet been assigned to any subspecies.
However, external differences in proportions and coloration do not always match genetic differences. Recent studies have revealed that geographically separated populations—such as those from southern Mallorca, the islet of Colomer, and northern Cabrera (and its associated islets)—are genetically more similar to each other than to the populations in southern Cabrera.
This is a project funded by the European Union through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, under the call of the Direcció General d’Universitats, Recerca i Ensenyaments Artístics Superiors of the Conselleria d’Educació i Universitats.
