Tibetan Plateau Relict Snakes of the Genus Thermophis and Their Relationship to New World Relict Snakes

作     者：Xiaoyu SUN Shaoying LIU Song HUANG 

作者机构：College of Life and Environment SciencesHuangshan University Institute of Biodiversity and GeobiologyDepartment of Life SciencesTibet University State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and EvolutionKunming Institute of ZoologyChinese Academy of Sciences Sichuan Academy of Forestry 

出 版 物：《Asian Herpetological Research》 (亚洲两栖爬行动物研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2011年第2卷第3期

页      面：161-168页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 0713[理学-生态学] 

基　　金：funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(30870290,31071891) the Students Science Research Program of Huangshan University(2010xdkj012) 

主　　题：Thermophis Tibet Dipsadinae ND2 Asian-North American origin 

摘      要：The complete mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2(ND2) gene sequences of two species of Thermophis, T. baileyi and T. zhaoermii, were sequenced and compared to those of 86 sequences from other snakes(74 from Caenophidia and 12 from Henophidia). By using Bayesian inference(BI) and maximum likehood(ML) approaches, Thermophis was demonstrated as the sister group to the North American relicts of Dipsadinae, and rooted in Central and South American members of this subfamily. The results suggest that the closest relatives of Thermophis are the North American relicts, and thus support the hypothesis for an Asian-North American origin of xenodontine snakes as suggested by Vidal et al.(2000). Extensive sampling of Asian snakes and American dipsadines is needed to further test this hypothesis in the future.