The evolutionary history of Lygodactylus lizards in the South American open diagonal

Publication date: Available online 12 June 2018Source: Molecular Phylogenetics and EvolutionAuthor(s): Flávia M. Lanna, Fernanda P. Werneck, Marcelo Gehara, Emanuel M. Fonseca, Guarino R. Colli, Jack W. Sites, Miguel T. Rodrigues, Adrian A. GardaAbstractThe Pleistocenic Arc Hypothesis (PAH) posits that South American Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTF) were interconnected during Pleistocene glacial periods, enabling the expansion of species ranges that were subsequently fragmented in interglacial periods, promoting speciation. The lizard genus Lygodactylus occurs in Africa, Madagascar, and South America. Compared to the high diversity of African Lygodactylus, only two species are known to occur in South America, L. klugei and L. wetzeli, distributed in SDTFs and the Chaco, respectively. We use a phylogenetic approach based on mitochondrial (ND2) and nuclear (RAG-1) markers covering the known range of South American Lygodactylus to investigate (i) if they are monophyletic relative to their African congeners, (ii) if their divergence is congruent with the fragmentation of the PAH, and (iii) if cryptic diversity exists within currently recognized species. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses recovered a well-supported monophyletic South American Lygodactylus, presumably resulting from a single trans-Atlantic dispersal event 29 Mya. Species delimitation analyses supported the existence of five putative species, three of them undescribed. Divergence times amon...
Source: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research