Body size evolution simultaneously creates and collapses species boundaries in a clade of scincid lizards.

ABSTRACT: Speciation is generally viewed as an irreversible process, although habitat alterations can erase reproductive barriers if divergence between ecologically differentiated species is recent. Reversed speciation might also occur if geographical contact is established between species that have evolved the same reproductive isolating barrier in parallel. Here, we demonstrate a loss of intrinsic reproductive isolation in a clade of scincid lizards as a result of parallel body size evolution, which has allowed for gene flow where large-bodied lineages are in secondary contact. An mtDNA phylogeny confirms the monophyly of the Plestiodon skiltonianus species complex, but rejects that of two size-differentiated ecomorphs. Mate compatibility experiments show that the high degree of body size divergen

SUBMITTER: Richmond JQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2493581 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature