Hybridization is a common phenomenon within the highly diverse lizard genus Liolaemus

MELISA OLAVE

Congreso; X Congresso Brasileiro de Herpetologia; 2023

Classically, the role of interspecific hybridization in animals has remained controversial. With the advent of next-generation-sequencing technologies, empirical studies based on a huge number of different animal taxa continue to identify more cases in which interspecific hybridization has left insights along their genomes, even promoted speciation in many cases. In consequence, fresh new perspectives that have been developed during the last decade have radically changed the view of the role of hybridization in species evolution, and it is now understood as an important mechanism for introducing new variants through which natural selection can work. The lizard genus Liolaemus is distributed across most of the temperate part of continental South America and is associated with climatic regimes ranging from the extremely arid Atacama desert (southern Peru) to the temperate Nothofagus rainforests (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). Liolaemus currently includes >290 described species and represents globally the most species-rich temperate zone amniote genus. Among many interesting aspects of the evolutionary history of Liolaemus, rampant interspecific hybridization has been documented among several groups, including non-sister and deeply divergent species. The role of hybridization in the genus is still unknown, but it opens interesting questions about its impact during the diversification of such extraordinary rapid radiation. Here, I will summarize what is known and what is still missing in the puzzle of this spectacular interplay between speciation and hybridization as a potential driver of the evolutionary success of Liolaemus lizards.