Low and high in the Andes: Phylogeny of the poorly known South American lizards of the Liolaemus montanus group

AGUILAR PUNTRIANO, C.; AVILA, L.J.; MORANDO, M.; DE LA RIVA, I.J.; GOICOECHEA, N.; TRONCOSO-PALACIOS, J.; JOHNSON, L.A.; SITES, J.W., JR.

New Orleans

Congreso; Joint Meeting Ichthyologist and Herpetologists; 2016

The Liolaemus montanus group is distributed over a wide latitudinal and altitudinal geographic range from central Perú to central Argentina and Chile, and from sea level to more than 5000 masl. A comprehensive hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships is lacking and species in this group are arranged based on overall morphological features that preclude further evolutionary studies. We present the first comprehensive molecular phylogenetic hypothesis for this group based on a sample of 33 known species (of about 60 species assigned to this group), and four genes (two mitochondrial and two nuclear regions). Our results show that the L. montanus group is not monophyletic and some species that were previously included in this group, seem to be part of other species arrangements in the same subgenus. We discuss taxonomic and biogeographic implications of our results.