Integrative species delimitation in practice: Revealing cryptic lineages within the short-nosed skink Plestiodon brevirostris (Squamata: Scincidae).
Mol Phylogenet Evol
; 129: 242-257, 2018 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30172009
Integrative taxonomy has been generally considered as a goal in systematics for more than a decade. Here, we employed environmental, molecular, and morphological data to evaluate the species boundaries within the short-nosed skink Plestiodon brevirostris from south-central Mexico, one member of the morphologically conservative P. brevirostris group. Our molecular dataset includes one mitochondrial and two nuclear loci. The mitochondrial fragment includes the full length of the gene coding for the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 protein, a segment of the gene coding for 16S ribosomal RNA, and flanking tRNAs. The nuclear dataset includes fragments of the genes coding for the megakaryoblastic leukemia 1 and RNA fingerprint 35 proteins. We employed phylogenetic reconstruction, analyses of population structure and morphological variation, and species delimitation methods (including the integration of the three kinds of data in a unified probabilistic framework) to evaluate species limits. Our results suggest that P. brevirostris represents four distinct species. The information provided by each kind of data allowed us to discern between alternative explanations for the observed patterns of geographic structure. Two of the newly recognized lineages are poorly differentiated morphologically but apparently differ in environmental preferences and are allopatric. Additionally, one lineage is microendemic and parapatric with respect to another one. Moreover, our phylogenetic analyses suggest that other taxa within the P. brevirostris group may represent species complexes. We discuss our results in the context of integrative species delimitation.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Filogenia
/
Lagartos
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
País/Região como assunto:
Mexico
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Mol Phylogenet Evol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de publicação:
Estados Unidos