New insights into the molecular phylogenetic relationships of lizards in the Neotropical genus Arthrosaura (Reptilia: Gymnophthalmidae) reveal rampant ‘ cryptic’ speciation in the Guiana Shield

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Kok, Philippe J. R., Fouquet, Antoine, Carvajal, Omar Torres, Means, D. Bruce, Rodrigues, Miguel Trefaut (2025): New insights into the molecular phylogenetic relationships of lizards in the Neotropical genus Arthrosaura (Reptilia: Gymnophthalmidae) reveal rampant ‘ cryptic’ speciation in the Guiana Shield. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204 (2): 1-12, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf045, URL: doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf045 ABSTRACT The gymnophthalmid lizard genus Arthrosaura currently contains seven species distributed in the Amazonian lowlands and in the Pantepui region.

The phylogenetic position and taxonomic status of most species in the genus are surrounded by considerable uncertainty. The type locality of the widespread Ar. reticulata (type species for the genus) is Canelos in Ecuador, but no specimen from Ecuador has ever been included in molecular phylogenies. Here we reassessed the molecular systematics and species’ diversity of Arthrosaura based on a multilocus analysis of a six-gene region matrix of an extensive dataset, including several species/populations that had never been sequenced previously, most from close to the type localities.