>>I have this as a PDF from Utiger, if anyone wants it they can e-mail alex_wspcr[@]hotmail.com

>>

>>My favourite is the wheel o' species with hemipene morphology

>>

>>I think part of the problem is he's got far more specimens of asian species than he does of N.A. species.



???? That's because there are a lot more Asian/European species than N. American - as far as I can see, he has pretty much all of the latter represented. Whatever criticisms of this study you may wish to make, inadequate taxon sampling within Elaphe is not one of them! I would have liked a few more more other colubrids/colubrines chucked in as outgroups, though, rather than relying on Ptyas alone.



Let's also establish right here that this mtDNA study is a follow-on from an earlier study by Helfenberger, where he used a variety of morphological and data to come to similar conclusions. The DNA paper is not on its own!



Reference:

Helfenberger, Notker. 2001. Phylogenetic relationships of Old World ratsnakes based on visceral organ topography, Osteology, and allozyme variation. Russian Journal of Herpetology. 8(supplement):1-62.



Cheers,



Wolfgang
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