Phylogenetic analysis of the Dactyloa clade of Anolis lizards (Squamata: Iguanidae), with a morphometric analysis of characters associated with habitat use

The Dactyloa clade is a poorly known group of Anolis lizards composed of 77 currently recognized species, distributed from Costa Rica to Peru, including the Amazon region and the southern Lesser Antilles. In this study, the phylogenetic relationships of Dactyloa were reconstructed using molecular (mitochondrial ND2 and COI, and nuclear RAG1 genes) and morphological (external and osteological) data. Analyses were performed on separate molecular and morphological as well as combined datasets, using parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian methods. Molecular and combined datasets support the monophyly of Dactyloa and five major clades: eastern, large size, Phenacosaurus, roquet and western. Each of these major clades exhibits a coherent geographic range. Of the seven previously recognized subgroups of Dactyloa---described based on morphological characters---only the monophyly of the roquet series was consistently not rejected by the topology tests applied (the laevis series was not tested, given that only data for one species was obtained). The monophyly of the aequatorialis, latifrons and punctatus series was strongly rejected; tests of the monophyly of the tigrinus series and the Phenacosaurus group (as traditionally circumscribed) yielded mixed results.;Previous studies have found that when analyzed with multivariate statistics, Anolis species in Caribbean communities form identifiable clusters in morphological and ecological space. Each of these microhabitat specialists---or ecomorphs---has a unique combination of features, and species within each ecomorph are not each other's closest relatives. In this study, seven clusters of Dactyloa species were recognized based on multivariate analyses of nine morphological variables associated with habitat use. These clusters do not correspond to monophyletic or geographically coherent groups of species. The range of morphological variation observed in Dactyloa species was nearly as broad as that seen among Caribbean species in the analysis including Dactyloa species and Caribbean species representing all ecomorph classes. Some Dactyloa species were classified into the Caribbean ecomorph categories (trunk-crown, trunk-ground and twig), though the specific criteria used to classify species in an ecomorph class clearly affects this outcome. Other Dactyloa species were not assignable to any of the Caribbean ecomorphs, indicating that some Dactyloa species exhibit combinations of morphological characters different from those seen in Caribbean species.