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Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 68 (2013) 461–470 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ympev Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of West Indian boid snakes (Chilabothrus) ⇑ R. Graham Reynolds a, , Matthew L. Niemiller b, S. Blair Hedges c, Alex Dornburg b, Alberto R. Puente-Rolón d, Liam J. Revell a a Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125-3393, USA b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St., New Haven, CT 06520, USA c Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA d Departamento de Ciencias y Tecnología, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Arecibo, Arecibo, PR 00614, USA article info abstract Article history: The evolutionary and biogeographic history of West Indian boid snakes (Epicrates), a group of nine species Received 16 October 2012 and 14 subspecies, was once thought to be well understood; however, new research has indicated that we Revised 5 April 2013 are missing a clear understanding of the evolutionary relationships of this group. Here, we present the Accepted 22 April 2013 first multilocus, species-tree based analyses of the evolutionary relationships, divergence times, and his- Available online 10 May 2013 torical biogeography of this clade with data from 10 genes and 6256 bp. We find evidence for a single colonization of the Caribbean from mainland South America in the Oligocene or early Miocene, followed Keywords: by a radiation throughout the Greater Antilles and Bahamas. These findings support the previous sugges- Boidae tion that Epicrates sensu lato Wagler is paraphyletic with respect to the anacondas (Eunectes Wagler), and Biogeography Epicrates hence we restrict Epicrates to the mainland clade and use the available name Chilabothrus Duméril and Evolution Bibron for the West Indian clade.
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