Data from: Habitat preference modulates trans-oceanic dispersal in a terrestrial vertebrate

The importance of long-distance dispersal in shaping geographic
distributions has been debated since the 19th century. In terrestrial
vertebrates, long-distance dispersal events across large water bodies are
considered highly improbable, but organismal traits affecting dispersal
capacity are generally not taken into account. Here, we focus on a recent
lizard radiation and combine a summary-coalescent species tree based on
1225 exons with a probabilistic model that links dispersal capacity to an
evolving trait, to investigate whether ecological specialization has
influenced the probability of trans-oceanic dispersal. Cryptoblepharus
species that occur in coastal habitats have on average dispersed 13 to 14
times more frequently than non-coastal species and coastal specialization
has therefore led to an extraordinarily widespread distribution that
includes multiple continents and distant island archipelagoes.
Furthermore, their presence across the Pacific substantially predates the
age of human colonization and we can therefore explicitly reject the
possibility that these patterns are solely shaped by human mediated
dispersal. Overall, by combining new analytical methods with a
comprehensive phylogenomic dataset, we use a quantitative framework to
show how coastal specialization can influence dispersal capacity and
eventually shape geographic distributions at a macroevolutionary scale.