Endemic Species of Turkey

Where endemism concentrates in Türkiye

Plant endemism is spatially clustered rather than evenly spread across the country. A quantitative analysis of 1,102 endemic taxa from Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Boraginaceae identified areas of endemism in the West Taurus, the Anatolian Diagonal, the Pontic–Ala region and Hakkâri. Fourteen grid cells qualified as centers of endemism under at least one index. The identified centers covered about 16% of Türkiye’s surface yet contained 59% of the endemic taxa in that three-family dataset. ^[S6]

A separate 2026 analysis of Brassicaceae, based on 663 native species and more than 15,000 georeferenced herbarium records, again found richness peaks along the Western and Central Taurus and through the Anatolian Diagonal. Endemic richness was associated with high elevation and topographic roughness. ^[S5]

Plant endemism: taxa, species and narrow ranges

The official national bulletin and the 2026 Brassicaceae study measure different biological units. The bulletin separates “endemic” and “local endemic” seed-plant taxa, while the Brassicaceae analysis reports accepted species, subspecies and varieties separately. Keeping those ranks apart prevents a plant-taxon total from being mistaken for a species count. ^{[S1] [S5]}

High mountains repeatedly appear as plant-endemism centers

All hotspot grid cells in the three-family analysis occurred in high mountains. The newer Brassicaceae dataset independently places its strongest species-richness signal in southern Anatolia, especially the Western and Central Taurus, with the pattern continuing through the Anatolian Diagonal. These studies use different families and methods, but both point to elevation and topographic fragmentation as recurring features of Turkish plant endemism. ^{[S6] [S5]}

Volcanic rock and isolated outcrops can hold micro-endemics

Umbilicus choripetalus, described from the Ödemiş district of İzmir in 2025, is ecologically confined to volcanic substrates; the related species discussed in its description are associated with limestone. Its range and substrate association provide a direct example of edaphic isolation within western Anatolia. ^[S7]

Draba baskilense, described in May 2026, is known only from rocks 7–8 km north of Baskil in Elazığ. The species is chasmophytic, living in rock crevices, and its known distribution is much narrower than a province-level range. ^[S8]

Freshwater fish endemism follows drainage boundaries

The 2026 freshwater-fish checklist defines strict endemism as a native species whose entire known natural distribution lies within Türkiye. Unestablished introductions and strictly marine visitors were excluded from its national total. The same dataset records the highest endemic richness in the Antalya drainage, with 28 endemic species, while total fish richness ranges from 11 species in the Van Basin to 65 in the Sakarya drainage. ^[S2]

The native non-endemic value is the remainder within the same checklist: 367 native species minus 202 native endemics. The three categories therefore form the complete 390-species dataset without mixing taxonomic ranks or geographic scopes.

{
  "type": "donut",
  "title": "Composition of Türkiye’s 2026 freshwater-fish checklist",
  "description": "Native endemic, native non-endemic and established non-native species within one national checklist.",
  "unit": "species",
  "data": [
    {
      "label": "Native endemic",
      "value": 202
    },
    {
      "label": "Native non-endemic",
      "value": 165
    },
    {
      "label": "Established non-native",
      "value": 23
    }
  ],
  "source": "[S2] Kaya et al. 2026"
}

The range descriptions in the same checklist show several different forms of micro-endemism. Anatolichthys transgrediens is restricted to the freshwater spring system of Lake Acıgöl, A. saldae to Lake Salda, A. irregularis to Kaklık Spring in the Büyük Menderes drainage, and Oxynoemacheilus hazarensis to the Lake Hazar basin. These distributions are much narrower than the national border that defines their country-endemic status. ^[S2]

The checklist also treats Anatolichthys splendens, formerly endemic to Lake Gölcük in Isparta, as extinct. It is kept outside the extant reference tables below so extinct and living records are not silently mixed. ^[S2]

Amphibian endemism is concentrated in narrow Anatolian lineages

IUCN’s 2025 country table records 12 amphibian species whose natural distribution is restricted to Türkiye. ^[S4] A large share of the species-level pattern is carried by southwestern salamanders in Lyciasalamandra, where neighboring lineages occupy short, fragmented ranges in Muğla and Antalya.

Current Amphibian Species of the World accounts also support Turkey-only native ranges for Lissotriton kosswigi, Ommatotriton nesterovi, Triturus anatolicus, Rana tavasensis and Neurergus strauchii. ^{[S9] [S10] [S11] [S12] [S13]}

Taxonomic rank can change the country count. Lyciasalamandra finikensis, centered in the Finike region, was elevated from subspecies to species rank in a recent treatment incorporated by Amphibian Species of the World. ^[S14] The IUCN country total and the species identities in the current taxonomic accounts are therefore kept as separate source-bounded datasets rather than forced into one reconstructed list.

Mammal endemism is concentrated in small terrestrial mammals

The 2025 mammal checklist reports 13 endemic terrestrial species. Ten are rodents and three are eulipotyphlans; no bats, carnivorans, artiodactyls or lagomorphs are counted as Turkish endemics in that checklist. ^[S3] The pattern is therefore dominated by blind mole-rats, voles, dormice, ground squirrels, shrews and moles rather than large mammals.

The count is a dated checklist value, not a timeless national total. Dryomys anatolicus was described in 2025 from the Eşekçayırı plateau near Ovacık in Tunceli and is treated by the Mammal Diversity Database as a Turkey-only species. ^[S15] A later revision of the Nannospalax ehrenbergi complex described three Anatolian species—N. colaki, N. garzanensis and N. karyominor—illustrating how species splits can alter the set of country endemics without any change in geography. ^[S16]

Reptile endemics follow fragmented mountain and steppe ranges

Current species accounts show Turkey-only reptiles in several separate geographic settings: southeastern steppe around Harran, the Taurus and Amanos mountains, eastern Anatolia around Lake Van, and small southwestern mountain ranges. This makes a single old national reptile count less informative than current species-level range treatments when the taxonomic list is changing.

Examples in the checklist include Acanthodactylus harranensis from southeastern Türkiye, Darevskia bendimahiensis and D. sapphirina in eastern Anatolia, Eirenis hakkariensis in the eastern Taurus, and Vipera anatolica in southwestern Türkiye. ^{[S17] [S18] [S19] [S20] [S21]}

Bird diversity does not produce a strict country endemic

Türkiye supports a large resident and migratory bird fauna, but the national environmental indicator reports no bird species whose natural range is confined to the country. ^[S22] A species can be characteristic of Anatolia, rare within Europe, or have a large share of its global population in Türkiye without meeting the stricter country-endemic definition.

Native to Türkiye is not the same as endemic to Türkiye

Several species closely associated with Anatolia occur naturally beyond Türkiye’s political border. Their presence in neighboring islands or countries prevents them from being strict Turkey endemics even when Türkiye holds a large part of the range.

Verified endemic species checklist