N. Da Silva et Jc. Sites, Phylogeny of South American triad coral snakes (Elapidae : Micrurus) basedon molecular characters, HERPETOLOGI, 57(1), 2001, pp. 1-22
We present new molecular data (mtDNA sequences and allozymes) for several s
pecies of South American "triad" coral snakes. We present a phylogenetic hy
pothesis for the group based on analysis of molecular characters using both
maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) optimality criteria. Re
sults from both methods are generally congruent and suggest a basal positio
n for the morphologically and ecologically unique Micrurus surinamensis. Th
e M. frontalis complex is shown to be papraphyletic with respect to several
other species in the parsimony and likelihood trees, but a topology constr
aining this group to monophyly cannot be statistically rejected compared to
the best MP or ML trees. All analyses provide strong support for polyphyly
of M. "lemniscatus", and in this case, the alternative monophyly topology
is strongly rejected under both optimality criteria. These results undersco
re the need for a more detailed analysis of populations currently assigned
to M. lemniscatus.