Molecular insights into the relationships and biogeography of West Indian anoline lizards

Abstract

Abstract-The realization that the present day positions of continents and island arcs are a result of continental drift led to the proposal that the extant West Indian fauna reflect an ancient (Cretaceous) land connection between the proto-Antilles and North and South America. Movements of the Antillean islands throughout the Cenozoic are hypothesized to have further fragmented the fauna present on the protoAntilles when it separated from the mainland 70-80 million years ago. This proposed vicariant origin of the West Indian fauna challenged the previous theory that some or most of the fauna arrived in the Antilles by overwater dispersal from mainland sources. The virtual absence of appropriate fossils in the West Indies has hampered testing these alternative hypotheses for the origin of the present day West Indian fauna.We present evidence from two types of molecular data, one providing indirect estimates of amino acid sequence divergence for the protein serum albumin, and the other direct DNA sequence information from a mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene. Our new data provide insights into the origin and relationships of two enigmatic lizard genera, Chamae/eo/is and Chamae/inorops, and suggest they are recent derivatives within' the genus Ana/is. These data, along with molecular data presented elsewhere, strongly implicate an origin by overwater dispersal for most of the Antillean vertebrate fauna.

Lack of Convergence in Aquatic Anolis Lizards

“…Thus, at most, only the remaining 18% of the species do not have distantly related morphological counterparts. However, some species, such as the leaf-litter dwelling Chamaelinorops barbouri (a lineage within Anolis; see Hass et al 1993;Jackman et al 1999), occupy habitats apparently not used by any other Caribbean species. Hence, in these cases, convergence would not be expected.…”

Cuban reptiles: original citations, holotypes, and geographic range

“…As Powell et al (1996) Hass et al (1993) and Hedges (1996) Thomas, 1975. Schwartz, A. andThomas, R. 1975 Garrido, 1972.…”

Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: Using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels

“…The continent-island vicariance model of Rosen (1975) placed a major emphasis on a Cretaceous origin of the biota associated with the formation of the protoGreater Antillean Arc and its subsequent eastward drift relative to North and South America. Hedges and co-workers (Haas et al, 1993;Hedges, 2006) have inferred that the dates of divergence of endemic Antillean clades of amphibians and reptiles from mainland species, as estimated largely from immunological distances, are not clustered in the late Cretaceous and early Paleocene and are generally younger than expected on the basis of Rosen's model. They have postulated over water dispersal consistent with the present northeast tending currents extending from the Atlantic coast of South America to the Antilles.…”