return to main index

  mobile - desktop
follow us on facebook follow us on twitter follow us on YouTube link to us on LinkedIn
click here for Rodent Pro  
Click here for LLL Reptile & Supply
This Space Available
3 months for $50.00
Locate a business by name: click to list your business
search the classifieds. buy an account
events by zip code list an event
Search the forums             Search in:
News & Events: Herp Photo of the Day: False Coral Snake . . . . . . . . . .  Herp Photo of the Day: Bearded Dragon . . . . . . . . . .  Greater Cincinnati Herp Society Meeting - Apr 02, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Calusa Herp Society Meeting - Apr 04, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Southwestern Herp Society Meeting - Apr 06, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Hamburg Reptile Show - Apr. 13, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  St. Louis Herpetological Society - Apr 14, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  San Diego Herp Society Meeting - Apr 16, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Suncoast Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  DFW Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Colorado Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Chicago Herpetological Society Meeting - Apr 21, 2024 . . . . . . . . . . 
RodentPro.com - feeders for less!
full banner - advertise here .50¢/1000 views
Polar Rodents - US based provider of frozen rats and mice.
pool banner - $50 year

RE: Is Aspidites basal among pythonids?

[ Login ] [ User Prefs ] [ Search Forums ] [ Back to Main Page ] [ Back to Taxonomy Discussion ] [ Reply To This Message ]
[ Register to Post ]

Posted by: johnscanlon at Tue Mar 15 19:52:44 2005  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by johnscanlon ]  
   

Hi,

I agree with what Wulf wrote.

Lesley Rawlings looked at pythonine molecular phylogeny in a PhD at the University of Adelaide and has subsequently published on the Morelia viridis 'complex' and on Liasis. However, the mitochondrial sequences she used turn out not to be adequate for more basal relationships, so most aspects of Kluge's phylogeny have not been tested yet. More molecular work is being done at UofA by Steve Donnellan and students, on the Morelia spilota group and other things.

A few years ago I added the Oligocene-Miocene fossil 'Montypythonoides riversleighensis' to Kluge's matrix and found it came out within Morelia, but did not change other major features of the cladogram (Aspidites still came out basal, even with revised outgroup relationships). I'm suspicious that this implies at least 6 ghost lineages in Australia over the last 25 million years, and it would make more sense of our (albeit meagre) fossil record if Python & Morelia are basal, Liasis (present in early Pliocene), Antaresia (Pleistocene, unpublished) and Aspidites (no fossil record) more derived and recent.

-----
John D. Scanlon
Riversleigh Fossil Centre
Outback at Isa
Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia
riversleigh@outbackatisa.com.au


   

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]


>> Next Message:  On the other hand... - Jaykis, Sat Feb 11 16:59:24 2006
>> Next Message:  RE: Is Aspidites basal among pythonids? - CKing, Wed Apr 12 18:15:13 2006

<< Previous Message:  RE: Is Aspidites basal among pythonids? - Wulf, Thu Mar 10 07:13:46 2005