Comparative Phylogeography of Floreana's Lizards Supports Galápagos Pleistocene Paleogeographical Model and Informs Conservation Management Decisions

A new species of lava lizard (Iguanidae: Tropidurinae: Microlophus) from the Galápagos

“…Thus, all ten species of Galápagos lava lizards proposed by Baur (1892) are currently recognized (Torres-Carvajal et al 2019). Reciprocal monophyly based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers, haplotype networks, genetic distances (Table 4) and morphological characters (Table 2) support recognition of populations of lava lizards from the 0.8-km 2 islet of Gardner-near-Floreana as a new species (Benavides et al 2009;Torres-Carvajal et al 2021), which I have described in this paper. Not surprisingly, the new species is most similar to its sister taxon M. grayii (Fig.…”

“…I analyzed genetic variation in a 764-nucleotide long fragment of the mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) across all species of Microlophus from the western radiation except M. barringtonensis from Santa Fe Island, for which DNA samples or ND2 sequences were not available. My analysis is based on 50 DNA sequences obtained from GenBank (Table 1), which were generated in previous studies (Kizirian et al 2004;Torres-Carvajal et al 2021). Sequences were aligned in GENEIOUS Prime 2020.2.2 (https://www.…”

“…Species delimitation. The taxonomic conclusions of this study are based on the integrative study of external morphological features, pairwise genetic distances, haplotype networks, and inferred phylogenetic divergences (Benavides et al 2009;Torres-Carvajal et al 2021). I consider phenetic distinguishability, genetic differentiation and reciprocal monophyly as species delimitation criteria following a general lineage or unified species concept (de Queiroz 1998(de Queiroz , 2007.…”

“…The logical assumption that the population from Gardner represents a distinct lineage was further supported by a recent study of 29 samples from Floreana, Champion and Gardner using the mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2, which revealed (1) a large difference (up to 41 mutational steps) between haplotypes from Floreana and Champion islet combined (hereafter Flo-Ch) and haplotypes from Gardner (Fig. 1); (2) a relatively large genetic distance (0.068 on average) between individuals from Gardner and Flo-Ch (interspecific genetic distances within the western radiation vary between 0.038 and 0.149, mean = 0.094); and (3) reciprocal monophyly between samples from Gardner and Flo-Ch (Torres-Carvajal et al 2021). By contrast, morphological differences between M. grayii from Floreana and surrounding islets has not been reported.…”

East palearctic treefrog past and present habitat suitability using ecological niche models

“…Past distributions of species relate to patterns of current distributions, genetics ( Carnaval et al, 2009 ), and biodiversity hotspots ( Carnaval & Moritz, 2008 ; Woodruff, 2010 ; Tang et al, 2018 ) and can therefore inform conservation practices. For example, recent genetic analysis of Floreana’s lizards ( Microlophus ) in the Galapagos supports the hypothesis of “glaciation driven contact” between conspecifics where Floreana and Champion islands were connected during the Pleistocene glacial maximum, and therefore Champion Island may be a source for potential reintroduction of Microlophus to Floreana Island in the event of extinction since they are genetically similar ( Torres-Carvajal, Castaño & Moreno, 2021 ). Similarly, in a study of endemic plants in East Asia, paleogeographic models showed that areas with high climatic suitability in the mid Holocene and last glacial maximum correlated to high levels of endemism in the present, meaning those areas provide long-term stable refugia for relict plant species ( Tang et al, 2018 ).…”