Ultraconserved elements-based phylogenomic systematics of the snake superfamily Elapoidea, with the description of a new Afro-Asian family

Sunandan Das*, Eli Greenbaum, Shai Meiri, Aaron M. Bauer, Frank T. Burbrink, Christopher J. Raxworthy, Jeffrey L. Weinell, Rafe M. Brown, Jonathan Brecko, Olivier S.G. Pauwels, Nirhy Rabibisoa, Achille P. Raselimanana, Juha Merilä

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The highly diverse snake superfamily Elapoidea is considered to be a classic example of ancient, rapid radiation. Such radiations are challenging to fully resolve phylogenetically, with the highly diverse Elapoidea a case in point. Previous attempts at inferring a phylogeny of elapoids produced highly incongruent estimates of their evolutionary relationships, often with very low statistical support. We sought to resolve this situation by sequencing over 4,500 ultraconserved element loci from multiple representatives of every elapoid family/subfamily level taxon and inferring their phylogenetic relationships with multiple methods. Concatenation and multispecies coalescent based species trees yielded largely congruent and well-supported topologies. Hypotheses of a hard polytomy were not retained for any deep branches. Our phylogenies recovered Cyclocoridae and Elapidae as diverging early within Elapoidea. The Afro-Malagasy radiation of elapoid snakes, classified as multiple subfamilies of an inclusive Lamprophiidae by some earlier authors, was found to be monophyletic in all analyses. The genus Micrelaps was consistently recovered as sister to Lamprophiidae. We establish a new family, Micrelapidae fam. nov., for Micrelaps and assign Brachyophis to this family based on cranial osteological synapomorphy. We estimate that Elapoidea originated in the early Eocene and rapidly diversified into all the major lineages during this epoch. Ecological opportunities presented by the post-Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event may have promoted the explosive radiation of elapoid snakes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107700
JournalMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Volume180
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2023

Funding

FundersFunder number
Faculté des Sciences
Faculté des Sciences, de Technologies et de l'Environnement
IUCN
LUOVA
Madagascar National Parks
Mention Sciences de la Vie et de l'Environnement
Ministère de l'Environnement
Percy Sladen Memorial Fund
Université d'Antananarivo
Université de Mahajanga
de l'Ecologie et des Forêts
National Science FoundationDEB 1257610
American Museum of Natural History
Villanova University
Harvard University
University of Michigan
Helsingin Yliopisto
University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at El PasoDEB-1145459, 8556-08
Southern California Academy of Sciences
Academy of Finland134728
Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey
China Scholarship Council
Koneen Säätiö
Opetushallitus2019-20, TM-19-11217

    Keywords

    • Elapoidea
    • Micrelapidae fam. nov.
    • Phylogeny
    • UCE
    • Ultraconserved elements

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