Colonization of North America Boosted the Diversification of Whiptail Lizards.

ABSTRACT: Diversification is frequently associated with change-anything from colonizing a new area to evolving a new trait. Once a lineage changes, the organisms may be able to exploit previously unavailable ecological opportunities and release pressures from predators, parasites, and competitors, which may increase the speciation rate. Modern teiid lizards originated in South America but managed to colonize and diversify in North America. We assessed whether geographic distribution, body size, and body temperatures are associated with teiid diversification using GeoHiSSE and inverse equal-splits statistics with simulation tests. We also estimated speciation rates with MiSSE to account for the effect of unmeasured variables. Moreover, we assessed the ecological niche overlap between North American (

SUBMITTER: Nappo HC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11496772 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature