Low genetic divergence obscures phylogeny among populations of Sphenodon, remnant of an ancient reptile lineage

Abstract

Tuatara (two species of Sphenodon) are the last representatives of a branch of an ancient reptilian lineage, Sphenodontia, that have been isolated on the New Zealand landmass for 82 million years. We present analyses of geographic variation in allozymes, mitochondrial DNA, nuclear DNA sequences, and one-way albumin immunological comparisons. These all confirm a surprisingly low level of genetic diversity within Sphenodon for such an ancient lineage. We hypothesise a recent extended population bottleneck, probably during the Pliocene/Pleistocene glaciation cycles, to explain the current paucity of variation. All data sets reveal clear genetic differentiation between the northern populations and those in Cook Strait, but offer conflicting views of the history and taxonomic relationships of the Cook Strait population on North Brother Island, currently recognised as Sphenodon guntheri. Allozymes show this population to be the most divergent of all tuatara populations, but preliminary mitochondrial DNA data indicate few differences between S. guntheri and Cook Strait Sphenodon punctatus. Interpretation of the trees is confounded by the lack of a suitable outgroup. As in other cases of conflicting nuclear and mitochondrial data sets, the different data sets likely reveal different aspects of the animals’ evolutionary history, and introgression is not uncommon between species pairs.