Figure 2. Evolution of mitochondrial gene organization in Uromastyx. A, typical vertebrate organization plesiomorphic to lizards. B, typical organization for acrodont lizards including Leiolepis and likely the direct common ancestor of Leiolepis and Uromastyx. C, typical Uromastyx organization in which the putative origin of light-strand replication (black box) disappeared from the WANCY tRNA gene cluster. D, organization for U. ornata and likely for the direct common ancestor of U. ornata and U. ocellata, which has an insertion containing a stem-and-loop structure (hatched box) and the second tRNAGln gene or pseudogene (Q*). E, organization for U. ocellata in which Q* disappeared. See Figs 3 and 4 for sequences and secondary structures of the inserted region in U. ornata and U. ocellata.

Published as part of Amer, Sayed A. M. & Kumazawa, Yoshinori, 2005, Mitochondrial DNA sequences of the Afro-Arabian spiny-tailed lizards (genus Uromastyx; family Agamidae): phylogenetic analyses and evolution of gene arrangements, pp. 247-260 in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 85 on page 251, DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00485.x, http://zenodo.org/record/7846312