Unraveling interspecific relationships among highland lizards: first phylogenetic hypothesis using total evidence in Liolaemus montanus group (Iguania: Liolaemidae)

SEMHAN, R. V.; PAZ, M.; AGUILAR KIRIGIN, A. J.; VALDES, J.; APARICIO, J.; QUINTEROS, A S; SCHULTE, J.; LASPIUR, A. ; VALLADARES, PABLO; SANTA CRUZ, R.; LANGSTROTH, R. ; ABDALA, C S; BULACIOS ARROYO, A. L.; RUIZ-MONACHESI, M R; GUTIERREZ, R.; PORTELLI, S. N.; GARCIA, N.

ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019

0024-4082

The South American lizard genus Liolaemus comprises more than 260species, of which more than 60 are recognized as members of theLiolaemus montanus group distributed in the Andes from central Peru tocentral Argentina and intervening regions of Bolivia and Chile. Despite itsgreat morphological diversity and complex taxonomic history, a robustphylogenetic estimate is still lacking for this group. Here, we study themorphological and molecular diversity of the L. montanus group andpresent the most complete quantitative phylogenetic hypothesis for thegroup to date. Our phylogeny includes 103 terminal taxa, of which 91are members of the L. montanus group (58 are assigned to availablespecies and 33 are of uncertain taxonomic status). Our matrix includes306 morphological and ecological characters and 3057 molecularcharacters. The morphological characters include 48 continuous and 258discrete characters, of which 70% (216) are novel to the literature. Themolecular characters represent five mitochondrial markers. Weperformed three analyses: a morphology-only matrix; a molecular-onlymatrix and a matrix including both the morphological and molecularcharacters (Total Evidence Hypothesis). Our Total Evidence Hypothesisrecovers the L. montanus group as monophyletic and includes at leasttwelve major clades, revealing an unexpectedly complex phylogeny.