DOI: 10.5061/dryad.35321
title: Data from: Phylogenetic structure of vertebrate communities across the Australian arid zone

description: AIM: To understand the relative importance of ecological and historical
 factors in structuring terrestrial vertebrate assemblages across the
 Australian arid zone, and to contrast patterns of community phylogenetic
 structure at a continental scale. LOCATION: Australia. METHODS: We present
 evidence from six lineages of terrestrial vertebrates (five lizard clades
 and one clade of marsupial mice) that have diversified in arid and
 semi-arid Australia across 37 biogeographical regions. Measures of
 within-lineage community phylogenetic structure and species turnover were
 computed to examine how patterns differ across the continent and between
 taxonomic groups. These results were examined in relation to climatic and
 historical factors, which are thought to play a role in community
 phylogenetic structure. Analyses using a novel sliding-window approach
 confirm the generality of processes structuring the assemblages of the
 Australian arid zone at different spatial scales. RESULTS: Phylogenetic
 structure differed greatly across taxonomic groups. Although these
 lineages have radiated within the same biome – the Australian arid zone –
 they exhibit markedly different community structure at the regional and
 local levels. Neither current climatic factors nor historical habitat
 stability resulted in a uniform response across communities. Rather,
 historical and biogeographical aspects of community composition (i.e.
 local lineage persistence and diversification histories) appeared to be
 more important in explaining the variation in phylogenetic structure.
 While arid-zone assemblages show an overall tendency towards phylogenetic
 clustering, this pattern was less pronounced at finer spatial scales. MAIN
 CONCLUSIONS: By focusing within different taxonomic groups and between
 those groups within regions, we show that although the vertebrate lineages
 we examined exhibited high diversity and low turnover across the arid
 zone, the underlying phylogenetic structure differs between regions and
 taxonomic groups, suggesting that taxon-specific histories are more
 important than habitat stability in determining patterns of phylogenetic
 community relatedness.
description: Pygopodidae species
 distributionA zip file containing
 the vetted species distributions in ASCII format for all Pygopodidae
 species used in this study.Pygopodidae.zipLerista species distributionsA zip file containing the vetted species distributions in ASCII format for all Lerista species used in this study.Lerista.zipDiplodactylinae species distributionsA zip file containing the vetted species distributions in ASCII format for all diplodactyline gecko species used in this study.Diplodactylinae.zipSminthopsine species distributionsA zip file containing the vetted species distributions in ASCII format for all Sminthopsinae and species used in this study, as well as maps for dasyurid outgroups (not included in analyses).Dasyurids.zipCtenotus species distributionsA zip file containing the vetted species distributions in ASCII format for all Ctenotus species used in this study.Ctenotus.zipCtenophorus species distributionsA zip file containing the vetted species distributions in ASCII format for all Ctenophorus species used in this study.Ctenophorus.zipSliding window gridsContains grid files used to sample species distributions in the sliding window analysis.GridASCIIs.zipCtenophorus nexus fileNexus matrix of ND1 and ND2 from Ctenophorus species and outgroups.Ctenophorus.nexCtenotus nexus fileNexus matrix of ATPsB, cytb, GAPDH, and ND4 from Ctenotus species and outgroups.Ctenotus.nexDiplodactylinae nexus fileNexus matrix of ND2 from Diplodactyline species and outgroups.Diplodactylinae.nexLerista nexus fileNexus matrix of 12S, 16S, ATPsB, and ND$ from Lerista species and outgroups.Lerista.nexPygopodidae nexus fileNexus matrix of 16S, c-mos, and ND2 from Pygopodidae species and outgroups.Pygopodidae.nexSminthopsinae nexus fileNexus matrix of 12S, 16S, B-fib, cyt b, IRBP, and P1 from Sminthopsinae marsupial species and dasyurid outgroups.Sminthopsinae.nexCtenophorus phylogenetic treeCtenophorus phylogenetic tree used in community phylogenetic analysesCtenophorus.newickCtenotus phylogenetic treeCtenotus phylogenetic tree used in community phylogenetic analysesCtenotus.newickDiplodactylinae phylogenetic treeDiplodactylinae phylogenetic tree used in community phylogenetic analysesDiplodactylinae.newickLerista phylogenetic treeLerista phylogenetic tree used in community phylogenetic analysesLerista.newickPygopodidae phylogenetic treePygopodidae phylogenetic tree used in community phylogenetic analysesPygopodidae.newickSminthopsinae phylogenetic treeSminthopsinae phylogenetic tree used in community phylogenetic analysesSminthopsinae.newick