An integrative approach to elucidate the taxonomic status of five species of Phymaturus (Squamata: Liolaemidae) from northwestern Patagonia, Argentina

BECKER, LEANDRO; BORETTO, JORGELINA; CABEZAS-CARTES, FACUNDO; MÁRKEZ, SEBASTIÁN; KUBISCH, ERIKA; SCOLARO, ALEJANDRO; SINERVO, BARRY; IBARGÜENGOYTÍA, NORA

ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019 vol. 185 p. 268 - 282

0024-4082

The lizard genus Phymaturus comprises two reciprocally monophyletic clades: palluma and patagonicus. Species belonging to the patagonicus clade occur in extra-Andean Patagonia, some of them remaining with unresolved phylogenetic relationships after studies based on morphological as well as nuclear and mtDNA evidence. Here, we elucidate the taxonomic status of five putative species originally described according to morphotypes based upon dorsal colour pattern: P. agilis, P. excelsus, P. manuelae, P. spectabilis, and P. spurcus. We amplified a fragment of 657 bp of COI mtDNA from 23 individuals and a fragment of 2708 bp of cytochrome b, ND1, ND2 and eight tRNAs from another 114 individuals. We found strong support for two reciprocally monophyletic genetic lineages: a small clade for P. manuelae and a large polytomic clade for the rest of the presumed species. A haplotype network analysis unveiled a deep genetic structure for lineages in the large clade, suggesting morphological differences are a consequence of population divergence. To complement the molecular analyses we estimated morphotype proportions in populations and estimated morph heritability with the regression of offspring on females bearing species-typical phenotypes. Our results indicate that P. agilis, P. excelsus, P. spectabilis, and P. spurcus comprise a single highly-structured species, with populations diverging from each other in dorsal patterns.