Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/44258
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Type: Journal article
Title: Phylogeny of snakes (Serpentes): combining morphological and molecular data in likelihood Bayesian and parsimony analyses
Author: Lee, M.
Hugall, A.
Lawson, R.
Scanlon, J.
Citation: Systematics and Biodiversity, 2007; 5(4):371-389
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Issue Date: 2007
ISSN: 1477-2000
1478-0933
Statement of
Responsibility: 
Michael S. Y. Lee, Andrew F. Hugall, Robin Lawson & John D. Scanlon
Abstract: The phylogeny of living and fossil snakes is assessed using likelihood and parsimony approaches and a dataset combining 263 morphological characters with mitochondrial (2693 bp) and nuclear (1092 bp) gene sequences. The ‘no common mechanism’ (NCMr) and ‘Markovian’ (Mkv) models were employed for the morphological partition in likelihood analyses; likelihood scores in the NCMr model were more closely correlated with parsimony tree lengths. Both models accorded relatively less weight to the molecular data than did parsimony, with the effect being milder in the NCMr model. Partitioned branch and likelihood support values indicate that the mtDNA and nuclear gene partitions agree more closely with each other than with morphology. Despite differences between data partitions in phylogenetic signal, analytic models, and relative weighting, the parsimony and likelihood analyses all retrieved the following widely accepted groups: scolecophidians, alethinophidians, cylindrophiines, macrostomatans (sensu lato) and caenophidians. Anilius alone emerged as the most basal alethinophidian; the combined analyses resulted in a novel and stable position of uropeltines and cylindrophiines as the second-most basal clade of alethinophidians. The limbed marine pachyophiids, along with Dinilysia and Wonambi, were always basal to all living snakes. Other results stable in all combined analyses include: Xenopeltis and Loxocemus were sister taxa (fide morphology) but clustered with pythonines (fide molecules), and Ungaliophis clustered with a boine-erycine clade (fide molecules). Tropidophis remains enigmatic; it emerges as a basal alethinophidian in the parsimony analyses (fide molecules) but a derived form in the likelihood analyses (fide morphology), largely due to the different relative weighting accorded to data partitions.
Keywords: Serpentes
character weighting
maximum likelihood
morphology
partitioned branch support
partitioned likelihood support
Description: Copyright © 2007 The Natural history Museum
Provenance: Published online by Cambridge University Press 12 Oct 2007
DOI: 10.1017/S1477200007002290
Published version: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1413540
Appears in Collections:Aurora harvest 6
Earth and Environmental Sciences publications

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