Data from: How lizards survived blizzards: phylogeography of the Liolaemus lineomaculatus group (Liolaemidae) reveals multiple breaks and refugia in southern Patagonia, and their concordance with other co-distributed taxa

Patagonia was shaped by a complex geological history, including the Miocene uplift of the Andes, followed by volcanism, marine introgressions, and extreme climatic oscillations during Pleistocene glaciation–deglaciation cycles. The distributional patterns and phylogenetic relationships of southern patagonian animals and plants were affected in different ways, and those imprints are reflected in the seven phylogeographic breaks and eight refugia that have been previously proposed. In this study we estimated time-calibrated phylogenetic/phylogeographic patterns in lizards of the Liolaemus lineomaculatus group, and related them to historical Miocene-to-Pleistocene events of Patagonia and the previously proposed phylogeographic patterns. Individuals from 51 localities were sequenced for the mitochondrial marker (cyt-b) and a sub-sample of individuals from each mitochondrial lineage was sequenced for one nuclear (LDA12D) and one slow evolving mitochondrial gene (12S). Our analyses revealed strong phylogeographic structure among lineages and, in most cases, no signal of population changes through time. The lineomaculatus group is composed of three strongly supported clades (lineomaculatus, hatcheri and kolengh+silvanae), and divergence estimates suggested their origins associated with the oldest known Patagonian glaciation (7-5 Ma); subsequent diversification within the lineomaculatus clade coincided with the large Pliocene glaciations (~3.5 Ma). The lineomaculatus clade includes nine strongly structured genetically and geographically lineages and five of them are interpreted candidate species. Our findings suggest that some Liolaemus lineages have persisted in situ in multiple refugia through several glaciation-deglaciation cycles in southern Patagonia without demographic fluctuations. We also provide qualitative evidence of some shared phylogeographic breaks and refugia among plants, rodents, and lizards.

巴塔哥尼亚由复杂地质演化历史塑造而成，包括中新世安第斯山脉隆升，随后的火山活动、海侵以及更新世冰期-间冰期旋回中的极端气候波动。巴塔哥尼亚南部动植物的分布格局与系统发育关系受到不同程度的影响，这些演化印记体现在此前提出的7个系统地理断点和8个冰期避难所中。本研究以线斑蜥（Liolaemus lineomaculatus）类群的蜥蜴为研究对象，估算了其时间校准后的系统发育/系统地理格局，并将其与巴塔哥尼亚中新世至更新世的地质历史事件以及此前提出的系统地理模式相关联。研究人员对51个采样点的个体进行了线粒体标记基因cyt-b（细胞色素b）的测序，并对每个线粒体谱系的亚样本进行了1个核基因LDA12D与1个进化速率较慢的线粒体基因12S的测序。分析结果显示，各谱系间存在显著的系统地理结构，且多数谱系未检测到随时间推移发生的种群数量变化信号。线斑蜥类群由3个高支持度的演化支（lineomaculatus、hatcheri以及kolengh+silvanae）构成，分化时间估算结果表明其起源与巴塔哥尼亚已知最古老的冰川事件（7-5 Ma）相关；线斑蜥演化支内部的后续分化则与上新世大规模冰川事件（约3.5 Ma）相吻合。线斑蜥演化支包含9个在遗传与地理上均具有显著结构的谱系，其中5个被认定为候选物种。本研究结果显示，巴塔哥尼亚南部的部分Liolaemus属蜥类谱系在多次冰期-间冰期旋回中于多个冰期避难所原地存续，未出现种群数量波动。本研究还为植物、啮齿类与蜥蜴类群间存在部分共有的系统地理断点与冰期避难所提供了定性证据。