Vol. 57, 2018

(update: 2018.05.03; 05.31) 

The True Identity of the New World Iguanid Lizard Liolaemus chillanensis Müller and Hellmich 1932 (Iguania: Liolaemidae) and Description of a New Species in the Liolaemus elongatus Group

Jaime Troncoso-Palacios^1,*, Damien Esquerré², Félix A. Urra^3,4, Hugo A. Díaz⁵, Carlos Castro-Pastene⁶, and María Soledad Ruiz⁷

¹Programa de Fisiología y Biofísica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Independencia 1027, Santiago, Chile
²Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University 0200, Canberra, Australia
³Programa de Anatomía y Biología del Desarrollo, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas (ICBM), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile and Fondap Geroscience Center for Brain Health and Metabolism, Independencia 1027, Santiago, Chile
⁴Programa de Farmacología Molecular y Clínica, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas (ICBM), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Independencia 1027, Santiago, Chile
⁵Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Las Palmeras 3425, Santiago, Chile
⁶Laboratorio de Vida Silvestre y Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Concepción, Vicente Mendéz 595,Chillán, Chile
⁷Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA (IBIGEO)CONICET. 9 de Julio 14, Rosario de Lerma, Salta, Argentina

(Received 27 August 2017; Accepted 19 April 2018; Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan)

Jaime Troncoso-Palacios, Damien Esquerré, Félix A. Urra, Hugo A. Díaz, Carlos Castro-Pastene, and María Soledad Ruiz (2018) Liolaemus is a particularly species-rich radiation of New World iguanid lizards from southern South America. Thanks to intense systematic and taxonomic research, the knowledge on its species-level diversity has increased rapidly over the past several years. The L. elongatus species-complex has received considerable attention and a remarkable case is Liolaemus chillanensis, a name that has been used for two different species that are sympatric in Termas de Chillán, central Chile. Since the holotype is lost, we propose that the first step to identify the true L. chillanensis is through the analysis of the original description. Then we provide a morphological and molecular characterization of L. chillanensis based on topotypes and a description of the taxon previously confused with it.

Key words: Chile, Cytochrome b, Liolaemus monticola, Phylogeny, Principal component analysis.

*Correspondence: E-mail: jtroncosopalacios@gmail.com

Supplementary Materials: Appendix 1 | Appendix 2