Reticulation in Squamata, the changing notion of species and a challenge for classification

MORANDO, MARIANA; SÁNCHEZ, KEVIN I.; AVILA, LUCIANO J.

New York

Simposio; Camp' 23: Celebrating 100 years of Charles L. Camp's Classification of the Lizards; 2023

American Musem of Natural History

One of the mostfundamental goals of biology is the comprehension of the way in which speciesarise. The gray zone of the speciation process lies at the intersection ofphylogenetics and population genetics. The revolution of DNA sequencingtechnology allowed the emergence of phylogeography as an integration of thesedisciplines. Currently, phylogeography is a widely used approach to pinpointcryptic diversity, spatio-temporal population dynamics, and the extent andtiming of gene flow. The first phylogeographic studies of lizards fromPatagonia at the beginning of the 2000´s, based on few DNA fragments, hinted atinterspecific gene flow as the hypothesis for observed patterns in some cladesof Liolaemus. During the following decade, based on ample geographic and taxonsampling, the inclusion of more nuclear markers, and morphological data, thathypothesis gained support for various taxa and areas. More recently, genomicdata showed many instances of widespread reticulation at different time scales.This sequence of events is an example of similar results from various lizardclades worldwide. We review the extent of gene flow in Squamata and discuss howthis pervasive process is related to uncertainty about species, their statusand the challenges pertaining to the traditional binomial system of taxonomicnomenclature. @font-face{font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face{font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";margin:0in;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-font-kerning:1.0pt;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}