Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels

Xantusiidae (night lizards) is a clade of small-bodied, cryptic lizards endemic to the New World. The clade is characterized by several features that would benefit from interpretation in a phylogenetic context, including: (1) monophyletic status of extant taxa Cricosaura, Lepidophyma, and Xantusia; (2) a species endemic to Cuba (Cricosaura typica) of disputed age; (3) origins of the parthenogenetic species of Lepidophyma; (4) pronounced micro-habitat differences accompanied by distinct morphologies in both Xantusia and Lepidophyma; and (5) placement of Xantusia riversiana, the only vertebrate species endemic to the California Channel Islands, which is highly divergent from its mainland relatives. This study incorporates extensive new character data from multiple gene regions to investigate the phylogeny of Xantusiidae using the most comprehensive taxonomic sampling available to date. Parsimony and partitioned Bayesian analyses of more than 7 kb of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data...

夜蜥蜴科（Xantusiidae）是一类体型小巧、行踪隐秘且仅分布于新大陆的蜥蜴支系（clade）。该支系具有若干特征，在系统发育背景（phylogenetic context）下解释这些特征将有助于深入理解其演化；具体包括：（1）现存类群（extant taxa）Cricosaura、Lepidophyma和Xantusia的单系性状态（monophyletic status）；（2）古巴特有物种（Cricosaura typica）的起源年代存在争议；（3）Lepidophyma属孤雌生殖（parthenogenetic）物种的起源；（4）Xantusia属和Lepidophyma属中显著的微生境（micro-habitat）差异及其伴随的独特形态特征（morphologies）；（5）Xantusia riversiana的系统发育位置——该物种是加州海峡群岛唯一的特有脊椎动物（vertebrate），且与大陆近亲差异显著。本研究整合了来自多个基因区域的大量新特征数据，采用迄今为止最全面的分类采样（taxonomic sampling），旨在探究夜蜥蜴科的系统发育关系（phylogeny）。对超过7kb的线粒体（mitochondrial）和核序列数据（nuclear sequence data）进行了简约法（parsimony）和分区贝叶斯分析（partitioned Bayesian analyses）……