Phylogenetic relationships and species delimitation of bunchgrass lizards of the genus Sceloporus from Mexico with the description of a new species

 Molecular data continue to serve as an invaluable tool to assess species limits and patterns of cryptic diversity, particularly in areas harboring high levels of biodiversity. The Sceloporus scalaris group, known as bunchgrass lizards, contains 13 described and one undescribed species distributed throughout high elevation biotas of Mexico. However, recent studies suggest that diversity in the group may be substantially underestimated. We collect new sequence data from four independent loci to determine the evolutionary distinctiveness and phylogenetic relationships of an isolated population of bunchgrass lizard in the Sierra San Juan (SSJ) in the Mexican state of Nayarit. Concatenation and coalescent-based phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses suggest that this population represents a distinct evolutionary lineage allied to the S. scalaris group. We describe the new SSJ population as a new species to better account for its morphological and evolutionary distinctiveness. D..., , # Phylogenetic relationships and species delimitation of bunchgrass lizards of the genus Sceloporus from Mexico with the description of a new species

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.rv15dv4kc](10.5061/dryad.rv15dv4kc)

## Description of the data and file structure

New sequence data were generated for 10 individual *Sceloporus* samples from the putative new species. New sequences were obtained from four loci (ND4, EXPH5, KIF24, R35). These new sequences were combined with sequence data from Grummer et al. (2014) available on GenBank to infer the phylogenetic position of the new taxon. We provide program input files for the phylogenetic analyses performed in this study. 

### Files and variables

#### File: All\_nDNA\_ND4\_Concatenated\_SVDq.nex

**Description:** Concatenated mtDNA + nDNA alignment used for SVDquartets and RAxML analyses.

#### File: All\_nDNAOnly\_Concatenated.nex

**Description:** Concatenated nDNA alignment used for SVDquartets and RAxML analyses.

#### File: EXPH5\_Phry...,