Pleistocene expansion and connectivity of mesic forests inside the South American Dry Diagonal supported by the phylogeography of a small lizard.

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 riparian forests in the Brazilian Shield in central Brazil are inhabited by Pleistocene lineages, with shallow divergences and signatures of population expansion. Moreover, riparian forests may have acted as a vegetation network in the Pleistocene, allowing gene/species flow across the South American dry diagonal.