Phylogeny and cryptic diversity in geckos (Phyllopezus; Phyllodactylidae; Gekkota) from South America’s open biomes

Abstract

The gecko genus Phyllopezus occurs across South America's open biomes: Cerrado, Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTF, including Caatinga), and Chaco. We generated a multi-gene dataset and estimated phylogenetic relationships among described Phyllopezus taxa and related species. We included exemplars from both described Phyllopezus pollicaris subspecies, P. p. pollicaris and P. p.przewalskii. Phylogenies from the concatenated data as well as species trees constructed from individual gene trees were largely congruent. All phylogeny reconstruction methods showed Bogertia lutzae as the sister species of Phyllopezus maranjonensis, rendering Phyllopezus paraphyletic. We synonymized the monotypic genus Bogertia with Phyllopezus to maintain a taxonomy that is isomorphic with phylogenetic history. We recovered multiple, deeply divergent, cryptic lineages within P. pollicaris. These cryptic lineages possessed mtDNA distances equivalent to distances among other gekkotan sister taxa. Described P. pollicaris subspecies are not reciprocally monophyletic and current subspecific taxonomy does not accurately reflect evolutionary relationships among cryptic lineages. We highlight the conservation significance of these results in light of the ongoing habitat loss in South America's open biomes.

Cryptic Diversity in the Neotropical Gecko Genus Phyllopezus Peters, 1878 (Reptilia: Squamata: Phyllodactylidae): A New Species from Paraguay

“…We sampled Phyllopezus from three localities of Paraguay ( Figure 1) and sequenced fragments of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene (GenBank accession numbers provided in Appendix S2) for comparison with sequences produced by Gamble et al [10]. DNA was extracted from muscle stored in ethanol 98% at -27 ∘ C using the standard glass fiber plate protocol of Ivanova et al [28].…”

“…As important as these "Dry Diagonal" ecoregions are, they remain poorly known with new species being described at an increasing rate [9][10][11]. Molecular data are now often used for species identification [12][13][14] and species delimitation [15][16][17][18] helping taxonomists to improve the global knowledge of alpha taxonomy.…”

“…This led to the recognition of many cryptic phylogenetic lineages of reptiles in the Neotropics [9,19]. A good example of this undescribed diversity involves lizards of the genus Phyllopezus distributed mainly along the "Dry Diagonal" [10,11].…”

“…Later, P. periosus Rodrigues, 1986 was described from northeastern Brazil [22], and more recently P. maranjonensis Koch, Venegas & Böhme, 2006 from Peru [23]. Furthermore, a detailed phylogenetic study, based on a multilocus genetic approach, showed a deep phylogenetic nesting of Bogertia lutzae within Phyllopezus and accordingly placed that species in the genus Phyllopezus to reestablish monophyly [10]. [23] and Werneck et al [11] indicating collection localities of our specimens.…”

“…Based on genetic analyses of Phyllopezus specimens (referred to as P. pollicaris) from the Chaco, Cerrado, and Caatinga ecoregions, a previous study found a high degree of genetic diversity in Cerrado and Caatinga (northeastern populations) specimens [10], followed by another study that proposed species status for P. przewalskii and designated seven additional taxa (within P. pollicaris sensu lato) as candidate species, thus, recognizing eleven tentative specieslevel units within this genus [11].…”