Grafting trees and networks: Phylogenetic and phylogeographic history in a clade of Patagonian lizards.

AVILA, L.J.; MORANDO, M.; SITES, JR. J. W.

Urbana/Champaing

Congreso; Evolution 2002; 2002

University of Illinois

Liolaemus is a large genus of New World lizards of southern South America. Currently several groups of species are recognized based on morphological traits, and two major clades (Liolaemus and Eulaemus), can be recognized by molecular evidence. One group within Eulaemus is the Liolaemus boulengeri group composed of  > 28 species, and within it a small subset of species that share behavioral and morphological traits, is the Liolaemus fitzingerii complex. In this work we present phylogenetic relationships of the boulengeri group, and we test the monophyly and species boundaries of the fitzingerii complex. We used fragments of the cyt-b, ND4, and 12S mitochondrial genes from 264 individuals including described and undescribed entities from 95 localities. We used a combination of traditional methods of phylogeny reconstruction (Maximum Likelihood, Maximum Parsimony, and Bayesian approach) with a statistical parsimony approach for the population analysis (Nested Clade Analysis) to recover deep and shallow history of the group. We discuss the phylogenetic relationships of the L. boulengeri group species in relation to a previously proposed hypothesis, and we recognized the fitzingerii complex within it. We generate hypotheses about species boundaries for several population groups, and discuss the validity of some recognized species.