Speciation across mountains: Phylogenomics, species delimitation and taxonomy of the Liolaemus leopardinus clade (Squamata, Liolaemidae)

Esquerré, Damien; Ramírez-Álvarez, Diego; Pavón‐Vázquez, Carlos J.; Troncoso-Palacios, Jaime; Garín, Carlos; Keogh, J. Scott; Leaché, Adam D.

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106524

Cited by 32 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 101 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Abdala et al [22] noted that from 1998 to 2007 an average of five new species of Liolaemus were described annually, but from 2008 to date, 66 new species have been described for an average of 6.5 new Liolaemus per year. The principal evidence used in support of these taxa has been morphological [1, 6, 15, 16, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94], molecular [14, 66, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99], morphological and molecular [5, 19, 100, 101, 102], morphological, molecular, and cytogenetic [18], and phylogenetic [2, 103]. This taxonomic research demonstrates that Liolaemus have morphological characters that are informative for the delimitation of species and that many of these characters are likely to be adaptive, allowing these lizards to exploit a wide range of habitats and macroenvironments, as expressed by the high species richness of the genus [104].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Description and phylogeny of a new species of Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) endemic to the south of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Liolaemus montanus group is a diverse group of lizards that ranges from central Peru to southwestern Mendoza, Argentina, including much of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (“Bolivia”) and Chile. The species of this group mainly inhabit high elevation areas with cold temperatures. In the last years, several species of this group have been described, mostly in Argentina and Chile. In Bolivia, there are at least thirteen valid species belonging to the L. montanus group. In this study, we describe a new species of the L. montanus group with a marked endemism in the Cordillera de Sama of the Tarija Department, Bolivia, and a combination of unique character states that allows its formal description as a new species. The phylogenetic relationships based on analysis of 159 morphological characters suggest that it belongs to the L. montanus group, and that it is closest to Liolaemus pulcherrimus, which is found allopatrically in a small area of the Jujuy Province, Argentina. The multivariate analyses of 66 morphological characters support the phylogenetic relationships. Statistical analyses of inter-species comparisons of morphological characters are not considered the only methods due to the non-independence of some characters states among species; thus, a phylogenetic analysis is recommended. The detailed revision of specimens of the L. montanus group held in the collections of Bolivia is filling major geographic gaps and improving our understanding of the phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships of this widely distributed group of South American lizards.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Description and phylogeny of a new species of Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) endemic to the south of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has been shown that some members of Liolaemus exhibit extensive levels of intraspecific variation, making diagnoses based on a single source of evidence unstable (e.g. coloration patterns, single-locus data; Breitman et al, 2013Breitman et al, , 2015Escudero et al, 2016;Esquerré et al, 2019). Further, a great number of species have been described based only on external morphological characters, not taking into account the extensive sexual and ontogenetic observed polymorphism, especially in the L. kingii group (see reviews in Breitman et al, 2013, and Avila et al, in press).…”

Section: Lineage Delimitation In the L Kingii Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Linear, meristic and head shape data have been used to delimit some Liolaemus species (e.g. Minoli et al, 2016;Esquerré et al, 2019) and, in some cases, these characters proved to be good estimators. In this study, however, the partial level of resolution of these are relevant if one considers that Liolaemus, in general, has been characterized by morphological stasis, with many species sharing what appears to be a conserved morphology (Olave et al, 2017(Olave et al, , 2018Esquerré et al, 2019;Villamil et al, 2019).…”

Section: Lineage Delimitation In the L Kingii Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the increasing availability of genomic datasets comprised of hundreds/thousands of independent loci, and coalescent-based approaches for species delimitation, have opened the door for the detection of independent lineages with increased levels of statistical rigor and objectivity (e.g. Eaton and Ree, 2013; Leaché et al, 2014;Leaché and Oaks, 2017;Esquerré et al, 2019;Villamil et al, 2019;Dufresnes et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An integrative multi-approach workflow resolves species limits in the southernmost members of theLiolaemus kingiigroup (Squamata: Liolaemini)

Sánchez¹,

Ávila²,

Sites

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AbstractRecent conceptual and methodological advances have enabled an increasing number of studies to address the problem of species delimitation in a comprehensive manner. This is of particular interest in cases of species whose divergence times are recent, where the conclusions obtained from a single source of evidence can lead to the incorrect delimitation of entities or assignment of individuals to species. The southernmost species of the Liolaemus kingii group (namely L. baguali, L. escarchadosi, L. sarmientoi, L. tari and the candidate species L. sp. A) show widely overlapping distributions as well as recent mitochondrial divergences, thus phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries are ambiguous. Here we use a comprehensive approach to assess species limits and corroborate their status as independent lineages through the use of four sources of molecular and morphological information (mitochondrial cytochrome-b, nuclear sequences collected by ddRADseq, and linear, meristic and landmark-based morphometrics). We found concordance among the different datasets, but signs of admixture were detected between some of the species. Our results indicate that the L. kingii group can serve as a model system in studies of diversification accompanied by hybridization in nature. We emphasize the importance of using multiple lines of evidence in order to solve evolutionary stories, and minimizing potential erroneous results that may arise when relying on a single source of information.

show abstract

“…Some authors have recently posited that hybridization may be one of the factors responsible for generating the exceptional diversity within this clade, particularly when compared to its sister clade Phymaturus that only has 48 species (Olave et al, 2018(Olave et al, , 2020Morando et al, 2020). Indeed, several studies have detected or suggested hybridization in disparate Liolaemus groups including the lineomaculatus series (Breitman et al, 2011) and leopardinus clade (Esquerré et al, 2019), the darwinii, kriegi, and petrophilus complexes (Morando et al, 2004;Feltrin, 2013;Medina et al, 2014), and the chiliensis and fitzingerii groups (Avila et al, 2006;Grummer et al, 2018;Araya-Donoso et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Species Linked by Three Hybrid Zones: Two Instances of Repeated Hybridization in One Species Group (Genus Liolaemus)

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hybridization is an evolutionary process that can generate diverse outcomes, such as reinforcing species boundaries, generating new species, or facilitating the introgression of locally-adapted alleles into new genomic backgrounds. Liolaemus is a highly diverse clade of South American lizards with ~260 species and as many as ten new species are described each year. Previous Liolaemus studies have detected gene flow and introgression among species using phylogenetic network methods and/or through comparisons of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA patterns, yet no study has systematically studied hybrid zones between Liolaemus species. Here, we compared three hybrid zones between four species in the Liolaemus fitzingerii group of lizards in Central Argentina where two species, L. melanops and L. xanthoviridis, each hybridize with two other species (L. shehuen and L. fitzingerii). We sampled three transects that were each ~120 km in length and sequenced both mitochondrial and genome-wide SNP data for 267 individuals. In our analyses of nuclear DNA, we also compared bi-allelic SNPs to phased alleles (50 bp RAD loci). Population structure analyses confirmed that boundaries separating species are sharp, and all clines are <65 km wide. Cline center estimates were consistent between SNPs and phased alleles, but cline width estimates were significantly different with the SNPs producing wider estimates. The mitochondrial clines are narrower and shifted 4–20 km southward in comparison to the nuclear clines in all three hybrid zones, indicating that either each of the species has sex-biased dispersal (males northward or females southward), the population densities are unequal, or that the hybrid zones are moving north over time. These comparisons indicate that some patterns of hybridization are similar across hybrid zones (mtDNA clines all narrower and shifted to the south), whereas cline width is variable. Hybridization in the L. fitzingerii group is common and geographically localized; further studies are needed to investigate whether hybrid zones act as hard species boundaries or promoters of speciation through processes such as reinforcement. Nonetheless, this study provides insights into both biotic and abiotic mechanisms helping to maintain species boundaries within the speciose Liolaemus system.

show abstract

Speciation across mountains: Phylogenomics, species delimitation and taxonomy of the Liolaemus leopardinus clade (Squamata, Liolaemidae)

Cited by 32 publications

References 101 publications

Description and phylogeny of a new species of Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) endemic to the south of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Description and phylogeny of a new species of Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) endemic to the south of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

An integrative multi-approach workflow resolves species limits in the southernmost members of theLiolaemus kingiigroup (Squamata: Liolaemini)

Four Species Linked by Three Hybrid Zones: Two Instances of Repeated Hybridization in One Species Group (Genus Liolaemus)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About