Data from: Origin and in situ diversification in Hemidactylus geckos of the Socotra Archipelago

The Socotra Archipelago is an ancient continental fragment of Gondwanan
origin and one of the most isolated landforms on Earth and a biodiversity
hotspot. Yet the biogeography and evolutionary history of its endemic
fauna still remain largely overlooked. We investigate the origin, tempo
and mode of diversification in the Hemidactylus geckos of the Socotra
Archipelago. Concatenated and multilocus species coalescent analyses of
Hemidactylus from Arabia and North Africa indicate that the Hemidactylus
from Socotra do not form a monophyletic group and branch as three
independent and well-supported clades instead. Both the chronogram
inferred using the gene tree approach of BEAST and the age-calibrated
multilocus species tree obtained using *BEAST suggest that the origin of
Hemidactylus from Socotra may have involved a first vicariance event, that
occurred in the Early Miocene, followed by two independent transoceanic
dispersal events that occurred more recently, during the Pliocene. Within
Socotra, we analyzed patterns of genetic diversity, the phylogeography and
the demographic history in all seven non-introduced species of
Hemidactylus. Results based on two mitochondrial and two nuclear loci from
144 individuals revealed complex patterns of within-island diversification
and high levels of intra-species genetic divergence. The interplay of both
historical and ecological factors seems to have a role in the speciation
process of this group of geckos. Interestingly, the case of H. forbesii
and H. oxyrhinus, which inhabit the island of Abd al Kuri with an area of
133 km², may represent one of the most extreme cases of intra-island
speciation in reptiles ever reported.