The shadow of the past: Convergence of young and old South American desert lizards as measured by head shape traits

Abstract

Convergence is a pervasive phenomenon in the Tree of Life, and evolution of similar phenotypes sharing the same environmental conditions is expected in phylogenetically closely related species. In contrast, contingent factors are probably more influential in shaping phenotypic diversity for distantly related taxa. Here, we test putative convergent evolution of lizard head morphologies among relatively closely related desert dwelling Liolaemus species, and the very distantly related Ctenoblepharys adspersa. We estimated a multilocus time‐calibrated phylogeny of 57 species of South American liolaemus lizards, based on seven molecular markers. We collected head shape data for 468 specimens, and used three phylogenetic comparative methods (SURFACE, CONVEVOL, and WHEATSHEAF index) to test for and estimate the strength of convergence. We found strong evidence for convergence among Pacific desert lizard C. adspersa, Liolaemus audivetulatus, Liolaemus insolitus, Liolaemus poconchilensis, Liolaemus stolzmanni, and a candidate species (Liolaemus “Moquegua”). Our results suggest that, despite the long divergence and phylogenetic distance of C. adspersa with respect to convergent Liolaemus species, natural selection was probably more important than historical contingency in shaping phenotypic evolution in these desert lizards.

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

“…Given that our hypothesis is supported by our morphological analyses, we consider the molecular studies of Aguilar-Puntriano et al [66] and the thermal ecology studies of Jiménez-Robles and De la Riva [105] to provide independent evidence that supports our hypothesis. In their research on convergence within the L .…”

“…schmidti )))))). Although somewhat different from our phylogenetic proposal (Fig 1), due in part to a different set of species utilized, the findings of Aguilar-Puntriano et al [66] validate the hypothesis that the lizards of the Tajzara Basin described in this present work represent a new species of the L . montanus group.…”

“…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].…”

“…In their research on convergence within the L . montanus group, Aguilar-Puntriano et al [66] recovered a lineage they identified as “sp2 Sama” and “sp2 Torohuaico” (from the Tajzara Basin) based on molecular evidence. Their phylogenetic estimate includes specimens representing the populations we describe here as L .…”

A high mountain lizard from Peru: The world’s highest-altitude reptile

“…This includes the coastal regions of southern Peru and northern Chile (Valladares et al 2004;Villegas-Paredes et al 2020), as well as southern Brazil (Verrastro et al 2003) and demonstrates a broad adaptive radiation of the genus in the region (Abdala et al 2020). In Peru, 28 species in the genus Liolaemus have been described to date (Chaparro et al 2020; Huamaní-Valderrama et al 2020; Arapa-Aquino et al 2021), although recent phylogenetic analyses have shown that this number is likely an underestimate, given the existence of several undescribed lineages or "candidate species" (Aguilar et al 2017(Aguilar et al , 2018Abdala et al 2020;Huamaní-Valderrama et al 2020).…”