How many Phymaturus (Squamata, Liolaemini) are there? A molecular assessment of flat lizards on rock outcrops.

MORANDO, M.; AVILA, L.J.; PEREZ, C.H.F.; HAWKINS, M.; SITES, JR. J. W.

Congreso; VII World Congress of Herpetology. Vancouver, BC, Canada.; 2012

WCH Organizing Committee

The lizard genus Phymaturus is widely distributed in Argentina between 25° to 45° south, and ranging from Puna environments to extra-Andean and Precordillera mountain ranges, and high plateaus in Patagonia. In Chile its geographic distribution is relatively small, confined to the highlands of the western slopes of the Andes. The genus includes 34 described species distributed in two clades: palluma or northern group and patagonicus or southern group, and all appear to be restricted to rock outcrop habitats with deep crevices. We analyzed 24 of the described species plus 25 candidate species using two mitochondrial (cyt-b and 12S), four protein coding nuclear, and seven anonymous nuclear genes, and present the first comprehensive molecular phylogenetic hypothesis for the clade. We compared results obtained from concatenated analyses with results of one coalescent-based species-tree approach (BEST), and with both methods we identified four main clades within the palluma group (mallimaccii , roigorum , verdugo , and vociferator), and five main clades within the patagonicus group (calcogaster, indistinctus , payuniae , somuncurensis , and spurcus ). We found several instances of non-monophyly with cyt-b, for which we discuss alternative hypotheses. We also found cases of incongruence between mitochondrial vs nuclear data suggesting that past hybridization may have played an important role in this group?s diversification. We also found an area where hybridization may be an ongoing process. BEST results are mostly congruent with the concatenated nuclear data, although with lower support values, suggesting that in this case, this method is less influenced by hybridization than combined concatenated analyses. We discuss the taxonomic and conservation implications of these results and how the future integration of phylogeographic and morphological approaches will allow further testing of demographic and biogeographic hypotheses