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Title: Phylogenetics and Morphometrics of Saw-scaled Vipers in Support of Lineage Diversification
Saw-scaled vipers (genus Echis) are small (up to 58 cm snout-to-vent length), venomous, eastern hemisphere snakes of the subfamily Viperinae. They are distributed across northern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and southwestern Asia. This group has been separated into four species complexes and twelve proposed species, however the true diversity within these groups is unclear even given numerous studies on this genus. This is partly due to uneven geographic sampling of specimens and tissue samples, overlapping distributions, and historically difficult to access species’ ranges making this genus difficult to research. Furthermore, previous studies have not used objective species delimitation approaches with either molecular or morphological data. Using recently collected tissue samples, we generate cytochrome b sequences for 24 specimens and combine these with sequences available on GenBank in order to create a time-calibrated phylogeny and estimate species level diversity using single locus species delimitation methods. We couple this with morphological analysis of specimens from the California Academy of Sciences and UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collections, in order to determine if these genetically delimited species are morphologically diverged. These data can further aid in identifying specimens to species in this genus, as was demonstrated by classifying individuals to species within the Academy’s collection.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2243994
PAR ID:
10502227
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science - 2023 NDiSTEM
Date Published:
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
Portland, OR
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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