Data from: Archipelagos of the Anthropocene: rapid and extensive differentiation of native terrestrial vertebrates in a single metropolis

Some of the best evidence for rapid evolutionary change comes from studies of archipelagos and oceanic islands. City parks are analogous systems as they create geographically isolated green spaces that differ in size, structure, and complexity. Very little, however, is known about whether city parks in single urban centres drive selection and result in the diversification of native species. Here, we provide evidence for the rapid genetic and morphological differentiation of a native lizard (Intellagama lesueurii) at four geographically close yet unconnected parks within one city. Year of establishment of each city park varied from 1855 (oldest) to 2001 (youngest) equating to a generation time range of 32 to three generations. Genetic divergence among city park populations was large despite the small pairwise geographic distances (Usage Notes Genotypes_13 markersGenotypes for four city parks (CP1, CP2 and CP3), three isolated non-urban (INU1, INU2 and INU3) and three connected non-urban populations (CNU1, CNU2 and CNU3) of eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii). 13 microsatellite markers are included (taken from Frere et al., 2012) in the file, File is in the format accepted for GeneALEx.Morphology_EWD_7 popsMorphological measurements taken for four city park (CP1, CP2 and CP3) and three isolated non-urban (INU1, INU2 and INU3) populations of eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii). File includes location, habitat type, sex, weight, jaw width, jaw length, upper forelimb length, lower forelimb length, upper hindlimb, lower hindlimb limb, tail girth and snout-ventral length. File is in a comma delimited excel spreadsheet.