Evolutionary relationships among the snakelike pygopodid lizards: a review of phylogenetic studies of an enigmatic Australian adaptive radiation

Abstract

Here, I review phylogenetic studies of the lizard family Pygopodidae, a group of 47 extant species that diversified in Australia and New Guinea. The goal of this study was to examine published phylogenetic and phylogenomic hypotheses on pygopodids to identify the strengths and weaknesses in our understanding of their phylogeny. Many parts of the pygopodid family tree are well established by multiple independent tree inferences including: (1) all multispecies genera (i.e., Aprasia, Delma, Lialis, Pletholax, and Pygopus) are monophyletic groups; (2) the root of the pygopodid tree is located along the branch leading to the Delma clade, thus showing that Delma is the sister group to all other pygopodid genera; (3) the Aprasia repens group, Delma tincta group, and several other groups of closely related species are demonstrated to be monophyletic entities; and (4) the monotypic Paradelma orientalis is the sister lineage to the Pygopus clade. Based on accumulated phylogenetic evidence, two taxonomic recommendations are given: Paradelma merits generic status rather than being subsumed into Pygopus as some earlier studies had suggested, and the monotypic Aclys concinna should be recognized as a member of Delma (following current practice) until future studies clarify its placement inside or outside the Delma clade. One chronic problem with phylogenetic studies of pygopodids, which has limited the explanatory power of many tree hypotheses, concerns the undersampling of known species. Although the continual addition of newly described species, especially over the past two decades, has been a major reason for these taxon sampling gaps, deficits in species sampling for ingroups and/or outgroups in several studies of pygopodid species complexes has confounded the testing of some ingroup monophyly hypotheses. Ancient hybridization between non-sister lineages may also be confounding attempts to recover the relationships among pygopodids using molecular data. Indeed, such a phenomenon can explain at least five cases of mito-nuclear discordance and conflicts among trees based on nuclear DNA datasets. Another problem has been the lack of consensus on the relationships among most pygopodid genera, an issue that may stem from rapid diversification of these lineages early in the group’s history. Despite current weaknesses in our understanding of pygopodid phylogeny, enough evidence exists to clarify many major and minor structural parts of their family tree. Accordingly, a composite tree for the Pygopodidae was able to be synthesized. This novel tree hypothesis contains all recognized pygopodid species and reveals that about half of the clades are corroborated by multiple independent tree hypotheses, while the remaining clades have less empirical support.