At the end of the line: independent overwater colonizations of the Solomon Islands by a hyperdiverse trans-Wallacean lizard lineage (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkota: Squamata)

Oliver, Paul M.; Travers, Scott L.; Richmond, Jonathan Q.; Pikacha, Patrick; Fisher, Robert N.

doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx047

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The phylogenetic position of V. spinulosus is remarkable given that it is a Solomon Islands endemic, meaning it likely made a considerable over-water dispersal or island hopped to the 400 Solomons only shortly after their formation~30 Ma (Hall 2002). This corroborates the intriguing observation that relatively young Melanesian islands have long been sources for ancient endemic diversity (Pulvers and Colgan 2007;Heads 2010;Oliver et al 2017Oliver et al , 2018. It also suggests at least three independent dispersals of Varanus across Wallace's line, and a convoluted history of movement throughout the Indo-Australian region.…”

Section: Phylogenetic Relationships and Originsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Phylogenomics of monitor lizards and the role of competition in dictating body size disparity

Brennan

Lemmon

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Organismal interactions drive the accumulation of diversity by influencing species ranges, morphology, and behavior. Interactions vary from agonistic to cooperative and should result in predictable patterns in trait and range evolution. However, despite a conceptual understanding of these 25 processes, they have been difficult to model, particularly on macroevolutionary timescales and across broad geographic spaces. Here we investigate the influence of biotic interactions on trait evolution and community assembly in monitor lizards (Varanus). Monitors are an iconic radiation with a cosmopolitan distribution and the greatest size disparity of any living terrestrial vertebrate genus. Between the colossal Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis and the smallest Australian dwarf 30 goannas, Varanus length and mass vary by multiple orders of magnitude. To test the hypothesis that size variation in this genus was driven by character displacement, we extended existing phylogenetic comparative methods which consider lineage interactions to account for dynamic biogeographic history and apply these methods to Australian monitors and marsupial predators. We use a phylogenomic approach to estimate the relationships among living and extinct varaniform lizards, 35 incorporating both exon-capture molecular and morphological datasets. Our results suggest that communities of Australian Varanus show high functional diversity as a result of continent-wide interspecific competition among monitors but not with faunivorous marsupials. We demonstrate that patterns of trait evolution resulting from character displacement on continental scales are recoverable from comparative data and highlight that these macroevolutionary patterns may develop 40 in parallel across widely distributed sympatric groups.

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Section: Phylogenetic Relationships and Originsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Phylogenomics of monitor lizards and the role of competition in dictating body size disparity

Brennan

Lemmon

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…We used BEAST v.1.8.0 [ 41 ] to visualize the evolution of karst-associated taxa across the radiation of Cyrtodactylus . We aligned genetic data (see above) from the new taxon with a four-gene dataset of Cyrtodactylus sequences synthesized from published literature (electronic supplementary material, appendix S1) [ 17 , 23 , 31 , 42 ]. This alignment included ND2 for all taxa, plus three nuclear genes ( MXRA-5 , RAG-1 and Phos ) for a reduced number of taxa (electronic supplementary material, appendix S3).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological and genetic evidence for a new karst specialist lizard from New Guinea (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkonidae)

Nielsen

Oliver

2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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Exposed limestone karst landscapes, especially in the tropics, are often home to distinctive and specialized biotas. Among vertebrates, a particularly large number of karst-associated lizard taxa have been described, but for the vast majority, evidence of specific adaptions to karst is lacking. A number of studies, however, have provided evidence of consistent morphological trends in lizards that use complex, three-dimensional, saxicoline habitats such as those that typify karst areas. Here we combine morphological and genetic data to test whether a newly discovered gecko from an extremely rugged karst area in New Guinea shows morphological trends matching those observed in other lizards associated with complex rock habitats such as karst and caves. Consistent with predictions, the new species' head is flatter and narrower than similar-sized relatives, and it has proportionally larger eyes and longer limbs. These trends indicate this taxon represents the second documented instance of karst specialization in a New Guinean vertebrate, and suggest morphological traits to test for evidence of specialized ecological associations in the many karst-associated Cyrtodactylus taxa from Southeast Asia.

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“…This strikingly insular distribution indicates multiple overwater dispersals onto small islands, even though the lineage is conspicuously absent or unrecorded from some of the nearby mainland areas (especially Peninsular Malaysia and New Guinea). Based on this observation, it has been hypothesized that this is an insular/disturbance specialist lineage that is good at dispersing, but struggles to persist in 'mainland' tropical rainforest environments (Oliver et al 2018).…”

Section: Cyrtodactylus Darmandvillei Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic partitioning of the third-largest vertebrate genus in the world, Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 (Reptilia; Squamata; Gekkonidae) and its relevance to taxonomy and conservation

Grismer¹,

Wood²,

Poyarkov³

et al. 2021

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The gekkonid genus Cyrtodactylus is the third most speciose vertebrate genus in the world, containing well over 300 species that collectively range from South Asia to Melanesia across some of the most diverse landscapes and imperiled habitats on the planet. A genus-wide phylogeny of the group has never been presented because researchers working on different groups were using different genetic markers to construct phylogenies that could not be integrated. We present here Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference mitochondrial and mito-nuclear phylogenies incorporating of 310 species that include dozens of species that had never been included in a genus-wide analysis. Based on the mitochondrial phylogeny, we partition Cyrtodactylus into 31 well-supported monophyletic species groups which, if used as recommended herein, will increase the information content of future integrative taxonomic analyses that continue to add new species to this genus at an ever-increasing annual rate. Data presented here reiterate the outcome of several previous studies indicating that Cyrtodactylus comprises an unprecedented number of narrow-range endemics restricted to single mountain tops, small islands, or karst formations that still remain unprotected. This phylogeny can provide a platform for various comparative ecological studies that can be integrated with conservation management programs across the broad diversity of landscapes and habitats occupied by this genus. Additionally, these data indicate that the true number of Cyrtodactylus remains substantially underrepresented.

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At the end of the line: independent overwater colonizations of the Solomon Islands by a hyperdiverse trans-Wallacean lizard lineage (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkota: Squamata)

Cited by 24 publications

References 55 publications

Phylogenomics of monitor lizards and the role of competition in dictating body size disparity

Phylogenomics of monitor lizards and the role of competition in dictating body size disparity

Morphological and genetic evidence for a new karst specialist lizard from New Guinea (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkonidae)

Phylogenetic partitioning of the third-largest vertebrate genus in the world, Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 (Reptilia; Squamata; Gekkonidae) and its relevance to taxonomy and conservation

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