Southwestern North America and northern Mexico continue to serve as ideal regions to elucidate the suite of ecological and evolutionary processes influencing lineage diversification. The complex geological history of arid North America, coupled with paleoclimate change during the Pleistocene and diverse ecoregions makes a multipronged approach to hypothesis testing necessary. We combine thousands of loci from a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach along with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from the Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) to examine range-wide diversity and test for cryptic population structure. We also apply recently developed coalescent approaches in a Bayesian framework to estimate migration rates. Population genomic and phylogenomic analyses support the existence of multiple lineages of C. texanus, with divergence following a southeast to northwest pattern. The geographic distribution of lineages, coupled with estimated divergence times, suggest a complex evolutionary history shaped by a combination of geomorphological shifts and ecological divergence in the Neogene. Our results also support the existence of a biogeographic barrier at the Continental Divide dating to the Pleistocene and the importance of isolation by distance. Migration rates between lineages are low, and species delimitation analyses further support the distinctiveness of lineages. Species tree analyses show that C. texanus texanus is nested within lineages of C. texanus scitulus, supporting the hypothesis that this system constitutes a species complex in need of revision. In sum, we find evidence for multiple processes influencing lineage divergence, indicating that additional multipronged phylogeographic studies using genomic data are needed on diverse, widespread taxa throughout arid western North America.

The genomics revolution continues to change how ecologists and evolutionary biologists study the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity. It is now easier than ever to generate large molecular data sets consisting of hundreds to thousands of independently evolving nuclear loci to estimate a suite of evolutionary and demographic parameters. However, any inferences will be incomplete or inaccurate if incorrect taxonomic identities and perpetuated throughout the analytical pipeline. Due to decades of research and comprehensive online databases, sequencing of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and select nuclear genes can provide researchers with a cost effective and simple means to verify the species identity of samples prior to subsequent phylogeographic and population genomic analysis. The addition of these sequences to genomic studies can also shed light on other important evolutionary questions such as explanations for gene tree-species tree discordance, species limits, sex-biased dispersal patterns, and mtDNA introgression. Although the mtDNA and cpDNA genomes often should not be used exclusively to make historical inferences given their well-known limitations, the addition of these data to modern genomic studies adds little cost and effort while simultaneously providing a wealth of useful data that can have significant implications for both basic and applied research.

The southern US and northern Mexico serve as an ideal region to test alternative hypotheses regarding biotic diversification. Genomic data can now be combined with sophisticated computational models to quantify the impacts of paleoclimate change, geographic features, and habitat heterogeneity on spatial patterns of genetic diversity. In this study we combine thousands of genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) loci with mtDNA sequences (ND1) from the Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) to quantify relative support for different catalysts of diversification. Phylogenetic and clustering analyses of the GBS data indicate support for at least three primary populations with evidence of recent admixture. The spatial distribution of populations appears concordant with habitat type, with desert populations in Arizona and New Mexico showing the largest genetic divergence. The mtDNA data also support a divergent desert population, but other relationships differ and suggest mtDNA introgression. Genotype-environmental association analyses support divergence along environmental axes. Demographic analyses support a model of allopatric divergence during the Pleistocene followed by secondary contact and gene flow. These results are consistent with inferred paleo-species distribution models. Our results also indicate that caution is warranted when fitting a multispecies coalescent model without introgression to populations that have exchanged genes throughout their diversification history. In sum, our results support allopatric divergence due to Pleistocene climate change, which was followed by secondary contact and widespread genomic introgression. Results also suggest that populations are continuing to diverge along habitat gradients. Finally, the strong evidence of admixture, gene flow, and mtDNA introgression among populations suggests that P. cornutum should be considered a single widespread species.