Adam D. Leaché

The broad distribution of theSceloporus magisterspecies group (squamata: phrynosomatidae) throughout western North America provides an appropriate model for testing biogeographical hypotheses explaining the timing and origins of diversity across mainland deserts and the Baja California Peninsula. We inferred concordant phylogenetic trees describing the higher‐level relationships within themagistergroup using 1.6 kb of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and 1.7 kb of nuclear DNA data. These data provide strong support for the parallel divergence of lineages endemic to the Baja California Peninsula (S. zosteromusand theorcutticomplex) in the form of two sequential divergence events at the base of themagistergroup phylogeny. A relaxed phylogenetic analysis of the mtDNA data using one fossil and one biogeographical constraint provides a chronology of these divergence events and evidence that further diversification within the Baja California clades occurred simultaneously, although patterns of geographical variation and speciation between clades differ. We resolved four major phylogeographical clades withinS. magisterthat (i) provide a novel phylogenetic placement of the Chihuahuan Desert populations sister to the Mojave Desert; (ii) illustrate a mixed history for the Colorado Plateau that includes Mojave and Sonoran Desert components; and (iii) identify an area of overlap between the Mojave and Sonoran Desert clades near Yuma, Arizona. Estimates of bidirectional migration rates among populations ofS. magisterusing four nuclear loci support strong asymmetries in gene flow among the major mtDNA clades. Based on the nonexclusivity of mtDNA haplotypes, nuclear gene flow among populations and wide zones of phenotypic intergradation,S. magisterappears to represent a single geographically variable and widespread species.

Many species inhabiting the Peninsular Desert of Baja California demonstrate a phylogeographic break at the mid-peninsula, and previous researchers have attributed this shared pattern to a single vicariant event, a mid-peninsular seaway. However, previous studies have not explicitly considered the inherent stochasticity associated with the gene-tree coalescence for species preceding the time of the putative mid-peninsular divergence. We use a Bayesian analysis of a hierarchical model to test for simultaneous vicariance across co-distributed sister lineages sharing a genealogical break at the mid-peninsula. This Bayesian method is advantageous over traditional phylogenetic interpretations of biogeography because it considers the genetic variance associated with the coalescent and mutational processes, as well as the among-lineage demographic differences that affect gene-tree coalescent patterns. Mitochondrial DNA data from six small mammals and six squamate reptiles do not support the perception of a shared vicariant history among lineages exhibiting a north–south divergence at the mid-peninsula, and instead support two events differentially structuring genetic diversity in this region.

We investigated a hybrid zone between two major lineages of fence lizards (Sceloporus cowlesiandSceloporus tristichus) in theSceloporus undulatusspecies complex in eastern Arizona. This zone occurs in an ecotone between Great Basin Grassland and Conifer Woodland habitats. We analysed spatial variation in mtDNA (N = 401; 969 bp), chromosomes (N = 217), and morphology (N = 312; 11 characters) to characterize the hybrid zone and assess species limits. A fine‐scale population level phylogenetic analysis refined the boundaries between these species and indicated that four nonsister mtDNA clades (three belonging toS. tristichusand one toS. cowlesi) are sympatric at the centre of the zone. Estimates of cytonuclear disequilibria in the population closest to the centre of the hybrid zone suggest that theS. tristichusclades are randomly mating, but that theS. cowlesihaplotype has a significant nonrandom association with nuclear alleles. Maximum‐likelihood cline‐fitting analyses suggest that the karyotype, morphology, and dorsal colour pattern clines are all coincident, but the mtDNA cline is skewed significantly to the south. A temporal comparison of cline centres utilizing karyotype data collected in the early 1970s and in 2002 suggests that the cline may have shifted by approximately 1.5 km to the north over a 30‐year period. The recent northward expansion of juniper trees into the Little Colorado River Basin resulting from intense cattle overgrazing provides a plausible mechanism for a shifting hybrid zone and the introgression of the mtDNA haplotypes, which appear to be selectively neutral. It is clear that complex interactions are operating simultaneously in this contact zone, including the formation of hybrids between populations withinS. tristichushaving diagnostic mtDNA, morphology, karyotypes, and dorsal colour patterns, and secondary contact between these and a distantly related yet morphologically cryptic mtDNA lineage (S. cowlesi).

For ectotherms, environmental temperature affects the optimal size and number of offspring via multiple mechanisms. First, temperature influences the performance of offspring, which directly affects the optimal size of offspring. Second, temperature influences maternal body size, which indirectly affects the optimal size and/or number of offspring when larger females acquire more energetic resources or provide better parental care. Although traditional statistical approaches might distinguish the relative importance of these effects, an information‐theoretic approach enables one to estimate effects more accurately by identifying the best evolutionary model in a set of candidate models. Here, we use the Akaike Information Criterion to calculate the likelihoods of seven path models, each derived from one or more optimality models of reproduction. Variation in reproductive traits among populations of lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) was used to quantify support for the models. Our results overwhelmingly supported a model based on an indirect effect of temperature that is mediated by maternal size. Path coefficients of this model were consistent with the hypotheses that, first, larger females can acquire more energy for reproduction and, second, the survival of offspring depends on both their size and their density. Our analyses exemplify how information theory can identify evolutionary hypotheses that merit experimental testing.