Genomic assessment of the Phyllodactylus tuberculosus complex (Reptilia: Phyllodactylidae) in America

Abstract

AbstractLeaf‐toed geckos (Phyllodactylus) exhibit much cryptic diversity, at least in North America. However, the origins of Central American taxa and their relationships with North American congeners remain unknown. The P. tuberculosus species complex is ideal for evolutionary and biogeographic studies because its geographic distribution extends from northern Mexico to Costa Rica. We analyse ~2,500 nuclear loci obtained by the GBS genomic technique to test hypotheses of genetic isolation among taxa and estimate times of divergence using a relaxed molecular clock model, which constitutes the first hypothesis for the diversification of North and Central American phyllodactylids. Phylogenetic analysis recovers three main clades within polyphyletic P. tuberculosus: tuberculosus, magnus and saxatilis. ABBA‐BABA tests show moderate to low levels of gene flow within the latter two clades and yet genetic isolation in Central American lineages. The relaxed molecular clock model dates the age of the MRCA between the Central American and North American lineages to the beginning of the Paleocene (65 mya), suggesting an ancestral distribution in the proto‐Mexican region and the Chortis Block.