How lizards survived blizzards: phylogeography of the Liolaemus lineomaculatus group (Liolaemidae) reveals multiple breaks and refugia in southern Patagonia, and their concordance with other co-distributed taxa

Patagonia was shaped by a complex geological history, including the Miocene uplift of the Andes, followed by volcanism, marine introgressions, and extreme climatic oscillations during Pleistocene glaciation–deglaciation cycles. The distributional patterns and phylogenetic relationships of southern patagonian animals and plants were affected in different ways, and those imprints are reflected in the seven phylogeographic breaks and eight refugia that have been previously proposed. In this study we estimated time-calibrated phylogenetic/phylogeographic patterns in lizards of the Liolaemus lineomaculatus group, and related them to historical Miocene-to-Pleistocene events of Patagonia and the previously proposed phylogeographic patterns. Individuals from 51 localities were sequenced for the mitochondrial marker (cyt-b) and a sub-sample of individuals from each mitochondrial lineage was sequenced for one nuclear (LDA12D) and one slow evolving mitochondrial gene (12S). Our analyses revealed s...