Multilocus phylogeny and Bayesian estimates of species boundaries reveal hidden evolutionary relationships and cryptic diversity in Southeast Asia water monitors (Genus Varanus)
Issue Date
2012-05-31Author
Welton, Luke Jarett
Publisher
University of Kansas
Format
57 pages
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
M.A.
Discipline
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Recent conceptual, technological, and methodological advances in phylogenetic systematics have enabled increasingly robust statistical species delimitation in empirical studies of biodiversity. As the diversity of lines of evidence has increased, so too have the kinds of tools and inferential power of species delimitation methods expanded. Here we showcase an ideal organismal system for a data-rich, comparative approach to evaluating integrative strategies of species delimitation among charismatic monitor lizards of the genus Varanus. The water monitors (Varanus salvator Complex), a widespread group distributed throughout Southeast Asia and southern India, have been the subjects of numerous taxonomic treatments, which recently have drawn increased attention to the possibility of undocumented species diversity in the Philippines. To date, studies of this group have relied on purportedly diagnostic differences in morphological characters, with no attention given to the genetic underpinnings of species diversity. We collected a 5-gene dataset to estimate phylogeny, and used multilocus genetic networks, analysis of population structure, and a Bayesian coalescent approach to infer species boundaries in this group. Our results contradict previous systematic hypotheses, reveal surprising relationships between Philippine and non-Philippine lineages, and simultaneously uncover novel, cryptic evolutionary lineages (new putative species). Our study contributes to a growing body of literature suggesting that integrative combinations of types of data and analyses are most informative to systematists and biodiversity specialists when attempting to estimate species diversity. We recommend holding in abeyance taxonomic decisions until multiple, converging lines of evidence are available to best inform taxonomists, evolutionary biologists, and conservationists.
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