I just read that.Very interesting and the lumpers will be happy.
Here is some more info,
NEWS RELEASE
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas
http://www.cnah.org
8 April 2007
HOW AND WHEN DID OLD WORLD RAT SNAKES DISPERSE INTO THE NEW WORLD?
Frank T. Burbrink and Robin Lawson
2007. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43: 173-189
Abstract: To examine Holarctic snake dispersal, we inferred a phylogenetic tree
from four mtDNA genes and one scnDNA gene for most species of the Old World
(OW) and New World (NW) colubrid group known as rat snakes. Ancestral area
distributions are estimated for various clades using divergence–vicariance
analysis and maximum likelihood on trees produced using Bayesian inference.
Dates of divergence for the same clades are estimated using penalized likelihood
with statistically crosschecked calibration references obtained from the Miocene
fossil record. With ancestral areas and associated dates estimated, various
hypotheses concerning the age and environment associated with the origin of rat
snakes and the dispersal of NW taxa from OW ancestors were tested. Results
suggest that the rat snakes originated in tropical Asia in the late Eocene and
subsequently dispersed to the Western and Eastern Palearctic by the early
Oligocene. These analyses also suggest that the monophyletic NW rat snakes
(the Lampropeltini) diverged from OW rat snakes and dispersed through Beringia
in the late Oligocene/early Miocene when this land bridge was mostly composed
of deciduous and coniferous forests.
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Available as a download from the CNAH PDF Library at
http://www.cnah.org/cnah_pdf.asp
*****
CNAH Note: The title will mislead you. The most significant information in this
very thorough and significant paper is the proposal that the genus Pantherophis
(New World Rat Snakes formerly placed in the genus Elaphe) should be placed in
the synonymy of the genus Pituophis (Bullsnakes, Gopher Snakes, and Pine
Snakes). This change is formally suggested in the last sentence of the last
paragraph of the paper.
The resulting scientific taxonomy (and correct spelling of the specific names)
for the nine North American colubrid species affected would be:
Eastern Rat Snake (Pituophis alleghaniensis)
Baird's Rat Snake (Pituophis bairdi)
Great Plains Rat Snake (Pituophis emoryi)
Eastern Fox Snake (Pituophis gloydi)
Eastern Corn Snake (Pituophis guttatus)
Western Rat Snake (Pituophis obsoletus)
Slowinski's Corn Snake (Pituophis slowinskii)
Midland Rat Snake (Pituophis spiloides)
Western Fox Snake (Pituophis vulpinus)
Standard common names would remain the same; the importance of using such
standardized common names looms large in the face of such a significant and
far-reaching change as proposed by Burbrink and Lawson.
