Phylogeny and biogeography of the African burrowing snake subfamily Aparallactinae (Squamata: Lamprophiidae).

摘要: Abstract Members of the snake subfamily Aparallactinae occur in various habitats throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The monophyly aparallactine snakes is well established, but relationships within are poorly known. We sampled 158 individuals from six eight genera employed concatenated gene-tree analyses, divergence dating approaches, and ancestral-area reconstructions to infer phylogenies biogeographic patterns with a multi-locus data set consisting three mitochondrial (16S, cyt b, ND4) two nuclear genes (c-mos RAG1). As result, we uncover several cryptic lineages elevate lineage Polemon full species status. Diversification occurred predominantly during Miocene, few speciation events occurring subsequently Pliocene Pleistocene. Biogeographic analyses suggested that Zambezian region, comprising grasslands woodlands, facilitated radiations, vicariance, dispersal for many aparallactines. Moreover, geographic distributions forest were fragmented xeric cooler conditions, which likely led diversification events. consistent previous studies other herpetofauna.