Phylogenetics and Biogeography of South American Lizards

South America hosts one of the richest continental radiations of lizards, dominated by the family Liolaemidae and its most speciose genus, Liolaemus. Phylogenetic investigations have elucidated deep divergences dating to the Miocene, driven by Andean uplift, climatic oscillations and aridification events. Modern studies combine multilocus sequence data, next-generation phylogenomics and morphological evidence to resolve relationships among hundreds of species, revealing complex patterns of lineage sorting, hybridisation and rapid speciation. Historical biogeographic reconstructions indicate that the Andes have acted both as a cradle and a museum of diversity, repeatedly promoting vicariance among montane clades and dispersal into coastal deserts, Patagonian steppes and highland plateaux. Adaptive traits such as viviparity, dietary shifts and changes in body size have repeatedly evolved in response to extreme thermal regimes, underscoring the interplay between ecological opportunity and macroevolutionary dynamics across heterogeneous South American landscapes.

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Phylogenetics and Biogeography of South American Lizards publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in phylogenetics and biogeography of south american lizards across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Phylogenetics: The study of evolutionary relationships among species or populations, typically represented by a branching tree.

Biogeography: The analysis of the geographic distribution of lineages through space and time, often incorporating dispersal and vicariance events.

Molecular clock: A method that estimates divergence times by assuming a constant rate of genetic mutation over time, calibrated with fossils or geological events.

Ancestral area reconstruction: A suite of models used to infer historical geographic ranges of ancestral nodes on a phylogeny.

Trait-dependent diversification: A framework that tests how species traits influence rates of speciation and extinction across a phylogeny.

References

1. Phylogenetic Analyses of Lizards from the Chilean Humboldt Archipelago Reveal a New Species for the Chañaral Island (Squamata: Liolaemidae) †. Animals (2023).
2. What defines an adaptive radiation? Macroevolutionary diversification dynamics of an exceptionally species-rich continental lizard radiation. BMC Ecology and Evolution (2015).
3. Phylogeny, time divergence, and historical biogeography of the South American Liolaemus alticolor-bibronii group (Iguania: Liolaemidae). PeerJ (2018).
4. Evolutionary transitions in diet influence the exceptional diversification of a lizard adaptive radiation. BMC Ecology and Evolution (2022).