An integrative approach to elucidate the taxonomic status of five species of Phymaturus Gravenhorst, 1837 (Squamata: Liolaemidae) from northwestern Patagonia, Argentina

BECKER, L.A.; BORETTO, J.M.; CABEZAS-CARTES, F.; MÁRQUEZ, S. ; KUBISCH, E.; SCOLARO, A.; KUBISCH, E.; SCOLARO, A.; SINERVO, B.; IBARGÜENGOYTÍA, N.R.

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 is divided into two reciprocally monophyletic clades: palluma and patagonicus. The patagonicus clade occurs in the extra-Andean region of Patagonia and previous studies based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA identified five main subclades in it, though phylogenetic relationships within some of them remain inconclusive. Here, we studied the evolutionary relationships and genetic variation among the lineages in the spurcus subclade, which includes P. manuelae, P. spurcus, P. excelsus, P. spectabilis, and P. agilis -all of them described from a relatively small area in northwestern Patagonia to which they are endemic. We first amplified a 657bp COI mtDNA fragment from 23 individuals belonging to these putative species collected in seven rocky outcrops, including the terra typica for each of them. We then sampled 114 individuals from six of these locations and amplified 2708 bp from two mtDNA regions: 798 bp of cytochrome b and 1910 bp of the region encompassing the end of ND1 gene, the whole ND2 gene, and eight tRNAs through the beginning of COI. We found strong support for two reciprocally monophyletic genetic lineages: a small clade containing only P. manuelae individuals and a large polytomic clade with shallow nodes comprising individuals from the rest of the presumed species. A haplotype network analysis unveiled a deep genetic structure for the lineages in the large clade, suggesting that the subtle morphological differences observed among them may be a consequence of population divergence. We also analyzed independent data from breeding observations and offspring phenotypes from mothers with species-typical phenotypes to complement molecular analyses. Our results indicate that P. agilis, P. spectabilis, P. excelsus, and P. spurcus are likely to be one, single highly-structured species, with populations diverging from each other in dorsal patterns. We conclude P. agilis, P. spectabilis and P. excelsus should be synonymized to P. spurcus Barbour 1921 following taxonomic priority rule.