Cryptic, Sympatric Diversity in Tegu Lizards of the Tupinambis teguixin Group (Squamata, Sauria, Teiidae) and the Description of Three New Species

Abstract

Tegus of the genera Tupinambis and Salvator are the largest Neotropical lizards and the most exploited clade of Neotropical reptiles. For three decades more than 34 million tegu skins were in trade, about 1.02 million per year. The genus Tupinambis is distributed in South America east of the Andes, and currently contains four recognized species, three of which are found only in Brazil. However, the type species of the genus, T. teguixin, is known from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela (including the Isla de Margarita). Here we present molecular and morphological evidence that this species is genetically divergent across its range and identify four distinct clades some of which are sympatric. The occurrence of cryptic sympatric species undoubtedly exacerbated the nomenclatural problems of the past. We discuss the species supported by molecular and morphological evidence and increase the number of species in the genus Tupinambis to seven. The four members of the T. teguixin group continue to be confused with Salvator merianae, despite having a distinctly different morphology and reproductive mode. All members of the genus Tupinambis are CITES Appendix II. Yet, they continue to be heavily exploited, under studied, and confused in the minds of the public, conservationists, and scientists.

Modeling the distributions of tegu lizards in native and potential invasive ranges

“…We compiled occurrence records for S. merianae , S. rufescens , and T. teguixin in South America from the GBIF ( www.gbif.org ), the HerpNET data portal ( www.herpnet.org ), publications 35 , 37 , 44 , and other credible records from herpetologists known to the authors. Tupinambis comprises a species complex of 4 or more species 9 . Pending molecular and/or morphological identification of the species currently present in southern Florida, and because species limits and distributions of this complex in the native range are poorly understood, we retained the long-held taxonomy of T. teguixin as one taxonomic entity.…”

“…Tegus (Squamata: Teiidae; 3 species in Salvator , 7 in Tupinambis ) 9 are terrestrial lizards widely distributed in South America east of the Andes 10 , 11 . Individuals of at least three species of tegus have been documented outside of their native ranges.…”

Evidence of cryptic lineages within a small South American crocodilian: the Schneider’s dwarf caimanPaleosuchus trigonatus(Alligatoridae: Caimaninae)

“…Distinct evolutionary lineages and cryptic species are frequently discovered without a priori intention during phylogenetic, phylogeographic, and population genetic surveys ( Pfenninger & Schwenk, 2007 ), and are not restricted to poorly known or small and obscure taxa. They are also observed in large charismatic taxa (e.g., river dolphins ( Hrbek et al, 2014 ), giant Galapagos tortoises ( Poulakakis et al, 2015 ), tegu lizards ( Murphy et al, 2016 ), and silky anteaters ( Miranda et al, 2017 )). These cases are particularly common in the tropics whether in the Neotropics (see above) or in the Paleotropics (e.g., African elephants ( Roca et al, 2001 ), species of giraffes ( Fennessy et al, 2016 ), a new species of orangutang ( Nater et al, 2017 )).…”

Morphology and distribution of the South American snake Chironius leucometapus (Serpentes: Colubridae)

“…Although some widely distributed Neotropical reptile species are cryptic species complexes (Nunes et al 2012, Werneck et al 2012, Carvalho et al 2013, Domingos et al 2014, Murphy et al 2016, others, such as Chironius scurrulus, are single species with broad distributions (Pinto et al 2019, Torres-Carvajal et al 2019. This study provides further evidence that not all widely distributed Neotropical reptile species are species complexes.…”