`The outgroup is chosen arbitrarily. If one is not careful, one can choose a member of the ingroup as the outgroup. Damning? Ptyas is indeed an outgroup to Old World plus New World Elaphe according to Lopez and Maxson's mtDNA data'.



Data which represents only a small fraction of the taxa within Elaphe sensu lato...



`If there is poor support for its outgroup status, it is indeed damning evidence that Utiger et al.'s hypothesis is poorly supported.'



And yet poorer support for the outgroup status of Ptyas is exactly what is to be expected on the inclusion of larger numbers of taxa within Elaphe sensu lato if Elaphe sensu lato is polyphyletic.



`Since there is no evidence that Elaphe is polyphyletic, and since there is no evidence that Utiger et al. split Elaphe on the basis of morphological disparity, the only reason I can think of is an ideological intolerance of paraphyletic taxa. If you can think of another reason for their splintering of Elaphe, please let us know what it may be.'



Again, this has already been addressed.



Patrick Alexander

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