AUTHOR=Abegg Arthur D. , Santos Alfredo P. , Costa Henrique C. , Battilana Jaqueline , Graboski Roberta , Vianna Fernanda S. L. , Azevedo Weverton S. , Fagundes Nelson J. R. , Castille Clément M. , Prado Pedro C. , Bonatto Sandro L. , Zaher Hussam , Grazziotin Felipe G. 

TITLE=Increasing taxon sampling suggests a complete taxonomic rearrangement in Echinantherini (Serpentes: Dipsadidae)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.969263

DOI=10.3389/fevo.2022.969263

ISSN=2296-701X

ABSTRACT=<p>Although the recent advances on the relationship of its major groups, the systematics of the rich fauna of Neotropical snakes is far from being a consensus. In this sense, derived groups presenting continental distributions have represented a main challenge. The taxonomy of the snake tribe Echinantherini is one of the most contentious among the diverse family known as Dipsadidae. The tribe is poorly sampled in phylogenetic studies, resulting in conflicting hypotheses of relationships among its taxa. Moreover, several rare and micro endemic species of Echinantherini have never been evaluated within a comprehensive phylogenetic framework. Here, we assess for the first time the phylogenetic position of the rare <italic>Echinanthera amoena</italic> within Echinantherini. We based our analyses on a comprehensive multilocus dataset including 14 of the 16 species described for the tribe. Our results support the monophyly of Echinantherini and strongly indicate <italic>E. amoena</italic> as a unique lineage, phylogenetically positioned apart from all other congeners. From the three current genera (<italic>Echinanthera</italic>, <italic>Taeniophallus</italic>, and <italic>Sordellina</italic>) our results indicate that <italic>Echinanthera</italic> and <italic>Taeniophallus</italic> are paraphyletic, since the <italic>T. affinis</italic> species group is positioned as sister to <italic>Echinanthera</italic> (except <italic>E</italic>. <italic>amoena</italic>) clustering apart from the clade formed by the <italic>T</italic>. <italic>brevirostris</italic> and <italic>T</italic>. <italic>occipitalis</italic> groups. We describe new genera for the <italic>T. affinis</italic> and <italic>T</italic>. <italic>occipitalis</italic> species groups and an additional monospecific genus for <italic>E</italic>. <italic>amoena</italic>. Although we did not evaluate the phylogenetic position of <italic>T. nebularis</italic>, we described a new genus and removed it from Echinantherini since its morphology strikingly departs from all species now included in the tribe. Finally, we redefine the genera <italic>Echinanthera</italic> and <italic>Taeniophallus</italic> and we provide comments about further directions to study the biogeography and the evolution of morphological traits in Echinantherini.</p>