Title
Molecular phylogenetics, species diversity, and biogeography of the Andean lizards of the genus Proctoporus (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae)
Date Issued
01 December 2012
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.v.
Abstract
The family Gymnophthalmidae comprises ca. 220 described species of Neotropical lizards distributed from southern Mexico to Argentina. It includes 36 genera, among them Proctoporus, which contains six currently recognized species occurring across the yungas forests and wet montane grasslands of the Amazonian versant of the Andes from central Peru to central Bolivia. Here, we investigate the phylogenetic relationships and species limits of Proctoporus and closely related taxa by analyzing 2121 base pairs of mitochondrial (12S, 16S, and ND4) and nuclear (c-mos) genes. Our taxon sampling of 92 terminals includes all currently recognized species of Proctoporus and 15 additional species representing the most closely related groups to the genus. Maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses recovered a congruent, fully resolved, and strongly supported hypothesis of relationships that challenges previous phylogenetic hypotheses and classifications, and biogeographic scenarios. Our main results are: (i) discovery of a strongly supported clade that includes all species of Proctoporus and within which are nested the monotypic Opipeuter xestus (a genus that we consider a junior synonym of Proctoporus), and two species of Euspondylus, that are therefore transferred to Proctoporus; (ii) the paraphyly of Proctoporus bolivianus with respect to P. subsolanus, which is proposed as a junior synonym of P. bolivianus; (iii) the detection of seven divergent and reciprocally monophyletic lineages (five of them previously assigned to P. bolivianus) that are considered confirmed candidate species, which implies that more candidate species are awaiting formal description and naming than currently recognized species in the genus; (iv) rejection of the hypothesis that Proctoporus diversified following a south to north pattern parallel to the elevation of the Andes; (v) species diversity in Proctoporus is the result of in situ diversification through vicariance in the grasslands of the high Andes, with at least five dispersals contributing to montane forest species. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Start page
953
End page
964
Volume
65
Issue
3
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Bioquímica, Biología molecular
Conservación de la Biodiversidad
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84867701112
PubMed ID
Source
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
ISSN of the container
10557903
Sponsor(s)
We are grateful to Mario García París and David Vieites for his assistance with some data analyses. We are also very grateful to Lourdes Alcaraz for technical assistance in the lab and to Isabel Rey and Beatríz Dorda for their help with the tissue collection, and to Olintho Aguilar and Rocio Orellana (MHNC) for providing administrative support, material and equipment for this study. Collecting permits in Peru were issued by the INRENA-IFFS-DCB (authorizations No. 008-2005 and No. 035-2008), and in Bolivia by the CBF (export number 02-2006). This study was funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation project CGL2008-04164 (Principal Investigator, I. De la Riva), and finished while a sabbatical year funded by Programa Nacional de Movilidad de Recursos Humanos del Plan Nacional de I-D+i 2008-2011. Noemí Goicoechea was supported by a FPI grant. JMP’s research is founded by a Gerstner Postdoctoral Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History (New York). The work of SCF was financed by a Fulbright/Ministry of Education post-doctoral research contract.
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