Jack W. Sites, Jr.

Jack W. Sites, Jr.
Brigham Young University | BYU · Department of Biology

PhD, Texas A & M University, 1980

About

364
Publications
170,166
Reads
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17,369
Citations
Introduction
Jack W. Sites, Jr. currently works at the Department of Biology, Brigham Young University - Provo Main Campus. Jack does research in Evolutionary Biology, Systematics, Taxonomy, and Herpetology.
Additional affiliations
January 2011 - December 2012
January 2011 - present
January 2011 - present
San Diego State University
Education
August 1976 - August 1980
Texas A&M University
Field of study
  • vertebrate evolutionary genetics (herpetology)
September 1973 - August 1975
Austin Peay State University
Field of study
  • Biology
September 1969 - August 1973
Austin Peay State University
Field of study
  • Biology, geology minor

Publications

Publications (364)
Article
Full-text available
In this study, we detangled the evolutionary history of the Patagonian lizard clade Liolaemus kingii, coupling dense geographic sampling and novel computational analytical approaches. We analyzed nuclear and mitochondrial data (restriction site-associated DNA sequencing and cytochrome b) to hypothesize and evaluate species limits, phylogenetic rela...
Article
Full-text available
Sexual dimorphism is a widespread feature in the Animal Kingdom. In lizards of the Sceloporus grammicus complex, studies of sexual dimorphism that analyze the allometric trajectories of body traits remain unexplored. Here we investigate sexual dimorphism in key phenotypic traits, including body size (snout-vent length, SVL) as well as head length (...
Article
Full-text available
Evolutionary correlations between phenotypic and environmental traits characterize adaptive radiations. However, the lizard genus Liolaemus, one of the most ecologically diverse terrestrial vertebrate radiations on earth, has so far shown limited or mixed evidence of adaptive diversification in phenotype. Restricted use of comprehensive environment...
Article
Motivation: Transposable elements (TEs) are ubiquitous in genomes and many remain active. TEs comprise an important fraction of the transcriptomes with potential effects on the host genome, either by generating deleterious mutations or promoting evolutionary novelties. However, their functional study is limited by the difficulty in their identific...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the factors that cause heterogeneity among gene trees can increase the accuracy of species trees. Discordant signals across the genome are commonly produced by incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and introgression, which in turn can result in reticulate evolution. Species tree inference using the multispecies coalescent is designed to de...
Article
Recent conceptual and methodological advances have enabled an increasing number of studies to address the problem of species delimitation in a comprehensive manner. This is of particular interest in cases of species whose divergence times are recent and/or effective population sizes are large, where the conclusions obtained from a single source of...
Article
In Argentina, the Monte ecoregion extends for more than 2,000 km from NW Argentina to boreal Patagonia, and includes many salt-pans and barren flatlands colonized by the monophyletic Liolaemus anomalus group that includes seven species. Some of their external morphological characteristics and behaviors are very unusual for the genus, and this has l...
Article
Full-text available
Background The evolutionary history of southern South American organisms has been strongly influenced by Pleistocene climate oscillations. Amphibians are good models to evaluate hypotheses about the influence of these climate cycles on population structure and diversification of the biota, because they are sensitive to environmental changes and hav...
Chapter
Full-text available
During the last two decades, regional exploration coupled with dense geographic sampling, new molecular techniques, and phylogeographic approaches have led to the discovery of unexpected hidden diversity. These data have expanded inferences about evolutionary and demographic processes to explain patterns of geographic genetic distribution, phylogen...
Preprint
Full-text available
Recent conceptual and methodological advances have enabled an increasing number of studies to address the problem of species delimitation in a comprehensive manner. This is of particular interest in cases of species whose divergence times are recent, where the conclusions obtained from a single source of evidence can lead to the incorrect delimitat...
Article
Southeast Asia hosts a rich concentration of biodiversity within multiple biodiversity hotspots. Indochina, a region with remarkably high levels of in situ diversification, possesses five major rivers (Chiang Mai, Ayeyarwady, Mekong, Salween, and Red), several of which coincide with phylogenetic breaks of terrestrial taxa. Draco maculatus possesses...
Article
Traditionally focused on Amazonian and Atlantic rainforests, studies on the origins of high Neotropical biodiversity have recently shifted to also investigate biodiversity processes in the South American dry diagonal, encompassing Chaco, Cerrado savannas and Caatinga seasonally dry tropical forests. The plateau/depression hypothesis states that rip...
Chapter
Lizards are a major component of temperate-to-tropical terrestrial vertebrate biotas, and have played a central role as model systems for evolutionary and ecological research. The most diverse lizard group of the southern half of South America is the clade Liolaemini (=family Liolaemidae), which includes three genera characterized by large differen...
Article
A survey of a limestone forest at Gunung Baling, Kedah, West Malaysia lead to the discovery of an undescribed species of Bent-toed Gecko from the Cyrtodactylus pulchellus complex. Cyrtodactylus evanquahi sp. nov. can be distinguished from all other species in the C. pulchellus complex by a suite of morphological and color pattern characteristics: p...
Article
Phylogenomic approaches now generate hundreds of loci representative of the whole genome that can be used for phylogenetic analyses. The South American lizard genus Liolaemus is the most species-rich vertebrate radiation from temperate zones (more than 265 described species), yet most higher-level phylogenetic relationships within Liolaemus remain...
Article
Full-text available
Macroevolutionary and biogeographical studies commonly apply multiple models to test state-dependent diversification. These models track the association between states of interest along a phylogeny, although many of them do not consider whether different clades might be evolving under different evolutionary drivers. Yet, they are still commonly app...
Article
Aim Understanding where and why species diversity is geographically concentrated remains a challenge in biogeography and macroevolution. This is true for the Cerrado, the most biodiverse tropical savanna in the world, which has experienced profound biodiversity loss. Previous studies have focused on a single metric (species composition), neglecting...
Article
Species diversification can be strongly influenced by geomorphological features, such as mountains, valleys and rivers. Rivers can act as hard or soft barriers to gene flow depending on their size, speed of flow, historical dynamics and regional topographical characteristics. The São Francisco River (SFR) is the largest perennial river in the Caati...
Preprint
Full-text available
Macroevolutionary studies commonly apply multiple models to test state-dependent diversification. These models track the association between states of interest along a phylogeny, but they do not consider whether independent shifts in character states are associated with shifts in diversification rates. This potentially problematic issue has receive...
Article
Species diversification can be strongly influenced by geomorphological features, such as mountains, valleys and rivers. Rivers can act as hard or soft barriers to gene flow depending on their size, speed of flow, historical dynamics and regional topographical characteristics. The São Francisco River (SFR) is the largest perennial river in the Caati...
Data
Table S1. Detail of the specimens used for this study. LJAMM: Herpetological collection of the Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONICET), Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina. ZVC-R: Vertebrate Zoology collection of the Faculty of Sciences, Montevideo, Uruguay. UFRGST: collection of the Herpetology Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio Grande d...
Data
Table S2. Posterior probabilities of the number of species and each candidate species estimated by BPP 3.4 for all the replicates run. Each combination of starting tree and priors for Θ and τ (a-d) where run under four different seeds which are indicated with ’. Top1: ((((A, B), H), (C, D)), (E, (F, G))); Top2: ((((A, H), B), (C, D)), (E, (F, G)));...
Data
Table S3. Lineage assignment for each of the 113 individual of Liolaemus wiegmannii with ddRADseq data, according to DAPC and RAxML. A: South-Central Argentina; B: Uruguay; D: Catamarca; E: Tucumán & Salta I; F: Jujuy and G: Salta II. All the individuals that belong to the lineage Mendoza C from BPP are recovered as part of lineage A (using ddRADse...
Data
Figure S2. K values explored for the Liolaemus wiegmannii complex based on 3912 SNPs. Blue circle represents the best K under BIC (A) and AIC (B) criteria.
Data
Figure S1. Bayesian cytochrome b genealogy of the Liolaemus wiegmannii complex considering haplotypes of L. gardeli and two unique haplotypes of Argentina: LJAMM 13266 (25 km N Villa Mercedes, General Pedernera Department, San Luis Province) and LJAMM 3132 (Copacabana, Sierras de Córdoba, Córdoba Province). Correspondence between colors and lineage...
Article
Full-text available
Three new species of Liolaemus belonging to the L. montanus group are described from Perú. Two new species are restricted to the Ica and Moquegua departments on the Pacific coast, and one new species is only known from an isolated highland in Ayacucho department. These three new species differ from closely related species in their coloration patter...
Article
Full-text available
In this contribution, the aspects of reptile and amphibian speciation that emerged from research performed over the past decade are reviewed. First, this study assesses how patterns and processes of speciation depend on knowing the taxonomy of the group in question, and discuss how integrative taxonomy has contributed to speciation research in thes...
Article
Full-text available
Convergence is a pervasive phenomenon in the Tree of Life, and evolution of similar phenotypes sharing the same environmental conditions is expected in phylogeneti-cally closely related species. In contrast, contingent factors are probably more influential in shaping phenotypic diversity for distantly related taxa. Here, we test putative convergent...
Article
During the speciation process sibling lineages accumulate differences in time (e.g. genetic, morphological, and/or ecological). Phenotypic traits such as size or shape, however, could experience rapid changes or show stasis depending on their role in survival and reproduction. The clade Phymaturus patagonicus includes 26 species characterized by a...
Article
Full-text available
Aim To assess the effects of historical events on the tempo and mode of diversification of the lizard Polychrus acutirostris along the South American diagonal of open formations (DOF). Location Caatinga and Cerrado biomes in Brazil. Methods We sequenced fragments of one mtDNA and three nuDNA genes of 68 individuals from 33 localities. We used pop...
Poster
Much of southern South America consists of diverse montane, arid, and semiarid regions characterized by high squamate endemism as a result of a complex interplay between lineage histories, Tertiary geological changes, and Pleistocene climatic shifts. Here we provide an updated review of lizard biodiversity in the northern ecoregion of the Monte Des...
Article
Full-text available
Hybridization is likely to occur more often between closely related taxa that have had insufficient time to diverge to the point of reproductive incompatibility; hybridization between deeply divergent lineages is rare. In squamate reptiles, hybridization has been proposed as a possible explanation for the extensive paraphyly observed in mitochondri...
Article
The US and Mexico share a common history in many areas, including language and culture. They face ecological changes due to the increased frequency and severity of droughts and rising energy demands; trends that entail economic costs for both nations and major implications for human well being. We describe an ongoing effort by the Environment Worki...
Article
There is an emerging consensus that the intent of most species delimitation methods (SDM) is to identify evolutionarily distinct lineages. However, the criteria employed differ among SDMs depending on the perceived importance of various attributes of evolving populations. While recent work has shown that species can be delimited when the amount of...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract Podocnemis sextuberculata (Pleurodira: Podocnemididae) is widely distributed throughout the Amazon drainage basin in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Telemetry and previous molecular data suggest that P. sextuberculata lacks population structure in the central Amazon basin of Brazil. Generalization of these results, however, requires much-broad...
Article
Full-text available
Microsatellites are useful markers to address questions of recent gene flow, given that they are relatively neutral to natural selection and show high levels of variability. To date, only one study has used these markers to answer ecological questions in the speciesrich lizard genus Liolaemus. Here, we use microsatellite loci to estimate population...
Article
Full-text available
The complex orogenic history and structure of Southern South America, coupled with Pleistocene glacial cycles, have generated paleoclimatic and environmental changes that influenced the spatial distribution and genetic composition of natural populations. Despite the increased number of phylogeographic studies in this region and given the frequent i...
Article
Full-text available
An allopatric population of big-eared climbing rats (Ototylomys) from the Northern Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, is described as a new species. The new taxon is part of a unique montane rainforest community that includes several other endemic species in the limited geographic range between the Río Grijalva and the Central Depression of Chiapas. Sev...
Article
Full-text available
Sexes can differ in features associated with differential reproduction, which can be used during courtship or aggressive encounters. Some traits tend to evolve independently between sexes and emerge as sexually dimorphic within the organismal phenotype. We characterize such a relationship by estimating the phenotypic integration of the head morphol...
Article
Full-text available
Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins, and contraction at southern and low elevation margins in the northern hemisphere, because of local extirpations or range shifts or both. We combined museum occurrence records from both the continental U.S. and Mexico with a new eco-physiological...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins, and contraction at southern and low elevation margins due to extinction. Climate models predict dramatic extinctions and distributional shifts in the next century, but there are few ground-truths of these dire forecasts leading to uncertainty in...
Article
Full-text available
The phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic history of Caribbean island ameivas (Pholidoscelis) are not well-known because of incomplete sampling, conflicting datasets, and poor support for many clades. Here, we use phylogenomic and mitochondrial DNA datasets to reconstruct a well-supported phylogeny and assess historical colonization patterns...
Article
Full-text available
Many studies propose that Quaternary climatic cycles contracted and /or expanded the ranges of species and biomes. Strong expansion-contraction dynamics of biomes presume concerted demographic changes of associated fauna. The analysis of temporal concordance of demographic changes can be used to test the influence of Quaternary climate on diversifi...