The combined role of dispersal and niche evolution in the diversification of Neotropical lizards

SHEU, YUMI; ZURANO, JUAN P.; RIBEIRO-JUNIOR, MARCO A.; ÁVILA-PIRES, TERESA C.; RODRIGUES, MIGUEL T.; COLLI, GUARINO R.; WERNECK, FERNANDA P.

Ecology and Evolution

John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Año: 2020

2045-7758

Ecological requirements and environmental conditions can influence diversificationacross temporal and spatial scales. Understanding the role of ecological nicheevolution under phylogenetic contexts provides insights on speciation mechanismsand possible responses to future climatic change. Large-scale phyloclimatic studieson the megadiverse Neotropics, where biomes with contrasting vegetation typesoccur in narrow contact, are rare. We integrate ecological and biogeographic datawith phylogenetic comparative methods, to investigate the relative roles of biogeographicevents and niche divergence and conservatism on the diversification of thelizard genus Kentropyx Spix, 1825 (Squamata: Teiidae), distributed in South Americanrainforests and savannas. Using five molecular markers, we estimated a dated speciestree, which recovered three clades coincident with previously proposed speciesgroups diverging during the mid-Miocene. Biogeography reconstruction indicates arole of successive dispersal events from an ancestral range in the Brazilian Shield andwestern Amazonia. Ancestral reconstruction of climatic tolerances and niche overlapmetrics indicates a trend of conservatism during the diversification of groups fromthe Amazon Basin and Guiana Shield, and a strong signal of niche divergence in theBrazilian Shield savannas. Our results suggest that climatic-driven divergence at dynamicforest-savanna borders might have resulted in adaptation to new environmentalniches, promoting habitat shifts and shaping speciation patterns of Neotropical