Lizard richness in mainland China is more strongly correlated with energy and climatic stability than with diversification rates

Aim: Contemporary environmental, historical, and evolutionary factors are increasingly used to decipher the drivers of spatial patterns of species richness. Evidence of such correlations for Chinese reptiles is scarce and poorly understood. We therefore explored the validity of the environmental capacity, historical climatic stability, and diversification rates hypotheses on Chinese lizard richness.
Location: Mainland China
Taxon: Squamata: Sauria
Methods: We mapped the distribution ranges of all 237 lizards in mainland China using a combination of different datasets. We used current environmental conditions (ambient energy, environmental productivity, and habitat heterogeneity), historical climate stability indices (long-term: since ~3.3 Ma and short-term: since the Last Glacial Maximum), and mean tip diversification rates to test whether current environmental conditions, historical climate change, and diversification rates drive contemporary richness patterns of lizards in China. We a...