Data from: Understanding species boundaries that arise from complex histories: Gene flow across the speciation continuum in the spotted whiptail lizards
Creators: name: Barley, Anthony
name: Nieto-Montes de Oca, Adrián
name: Manríquez-Morán, Norma
name: Thomson, Robert
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Hybridization
RADseq
phylogenetic networks
Aspidoscelis
Parthenogenesis

description: Gene flow between diverging lineages challenges the resolution of species boundaries and the understanding of evolutionary history in recent radiations. Here, we integrate phylogenetic and coalescent tools to resolve reticulate patterns of diversification and use a perspective focused on evolutionary mechanisms to distinguish interspecific and intraspecific taxonomic variation. We use this approach to resolve the systematics for one of the most intensively studied but difficult to understand groups of reptiles: the spotted whiptail lizards of the genus Aspidoscelis (A. gularis complex). Whiptails contain the largest number of unisexual species known within any vertebrate group and the spotted whiptail complex has played a key role in the generation of this diversity through hybrid speciation. Understanding lineage boundaries and the evolutionary history of divergence and reticulation within this group is therefore key to understanding the generation of unisexual diversity in whiptails. Despite this importance, long-standing confusion about their systematics has impeded understanding of which gonochoristic species have contributed to the formation of unisexual lineages. Using reduced representation genomic data, we resolve patterns of divergence and gene flow within the spotted whiptails and clarify patterns of hybrid speciation. We find evidence that biogeographically structured ecological and environmental variation has been important in morphological and genetic diversification, as well as the maintenance of species boundaries in this system. Our study elucidates how gene flow among lineages and the continuous nature of speciation can bias the practice of species delimitation and lead taxonomists operating under different frameworks to different conclusions (here we propose that a two species arrangement best reflects our current understanding). In doing so, this study provides conceptual and methodological insights into approaches to resolving diversification patterns and species boundaries in rapid radiations with complex histories, as well as long-standing taxonomic challenges in the field of systematic biology.
description: Funding provided by: National Science FoundationROR ID: https://ror.org/021nxhr62Award Number: DEB-1754350
Funding provided by: National Science FoundationROR ID: https://ror.org/021nxhr62Award Number: DEB-190017
Funding provided by: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoROR ID: https://ror.org/01tmp8f25Award Number: IN218522
description: The primary data associated with this research is restriction site associated DNA genotyping data sequenced from tissue samples of lizards. Data were processed and analyzed using a variety of bioinformatic tools for genome assembly and evolutionary analyses. These are described in detail in the associated manuscript.