A phylogeny and genus-level revision of the African file snakes Gonionotophis Boulenger (Squamata: Lamprophiidae)
Date
2018Author
Broadley, Donald G.
Burger, Marius
Tolley, Krystal A.
Conradie, Werner
Wishart, Sarah
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The sub-Saharan African file snake genus
Gonionotophis
is currently
comprised of 15 species. However, the concept of this genus has
been confounded by morphological and genetic differences
between the constituent taxa. Due to the dearth of DNA samples,
a taxonomic assessment has been impractical to date. We
therefore sequenced two mitochondrial and one nuclear marker
(16S, cyt
b
, and c-mos) from 45 samples representing ten species
of
Gonionotophis
to construct a molecular phylogeny using
Bayesian and likelihood approaches. Four divergent and well-
supported clades were recovered, including: (1)
grantii
+
brussauxi
;
(2)
poensis
+
stenophthalmus
; (3)
nyassae
; and (4)
capensis
,
chanleri
,
crossi
,
guirali
and
savorgnani
. Based on these results and
morphological data, the genus
Gonionotophis
is restricted to the
first clade,
Mehelya
is resurrected for the species in the second
clade, and new genera are described for the remaining two clades
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/26709https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2018.1423578
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21564574.2018.1423578