Lizards on ice: evidence for multiple refugia in Liolaemus pictus (Liolaemidae) during the Last Glacial Maximum in the southern Andean beech forests

Historical climate changes and orogenesis are two important factors that have shaped intraspecific biodiversity patterns worldwide. Although southern South America has experienced such complex events, there is a paucity of studies examining the effects on intraspecific diversification in this part of the world. Liolaemus pictus is the southernmost distributed lizard in the Chilean temperate forest, whose genetic structure has likely been influenced by Pleistocene glaciations. We conducted a phylogeographic study of L. pictus in Chile and Argentina based on one mitochondrial and two nuclear genes, and recovered two strongly divergent groups, Northern and Southern clades, the former distributed from the northernmost limit of the species to the Araucanía region, and the latter being distributed throughout the Andes and the Chiloé archipelago in Southern Chile. Our results suggest that L. pictus originated 751 Kya, with divergence between the two clades occurring in the late Pleistocene. D...