Digest: Liolaemus lizards as an emerging model system to study hybridization as a driver of rapid radiations.

Abstract

Recent perspectives on speciation genomics emphasize the pivotal role of hybridization in driving rapid radiations. The Liolaemus lizard genus displays impressive species richness with around 290 species widely distributed across southern South America. Sánchez et al. (2024) conducted a comprehensive study on the 5-million-year-old Liolaemus kingii group, which includes 14 species. The research provides new key insights to enhance our understanding of this rapid radiation, including its diversification in space and time and consequences of hybridization in its morphological evolution and taxonomy.