Phylogenetic systematics of South American lizards of the genus Stenocercus (Squamata: Iguania)

Abstract:

The South American iguanian lizard genus Stenocercus includes 58 species occurring mostly in the Andes and adjacent lowland areas from northern Venezuela and Colombia to central Argentina at elevations of 0--4000 m. Limited taxon or character sampling have characterized all previous phylogenetic analyses of Stenocercus, which has repeatedly been proposed as sister taxon to the Tropidurus Group. In this study, I use molecular and morphological data to (1) infer the phylogenetic relationships among most species of Stenocercus,(2) perform explicit statistical tests of previous phylogenetic hypotheses, and (3) infer the ancestral distribution of Stenocercus. Using parsimony and Bayesian analyses, monophyly of this genus is strongly supported with a dataset of 32 species of Stenocercus, 12 outgroup taxa, and 1641 bp of mtDNA. Molecular data also are used to analyze evolutionary relationships within …

Año de publicación:

2005

Keywords:

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