The phylogeny of the neotropical palm-pitviper genuswith Ophryachus as the sister lineage. Crother et al. Bothriechis has been previously inferred from morphol- (1992) inferred the phylogeny of Bothriechis with alloogy and allozymes. These nuclear-based data sets were zymes and morphology and found the two data sets found to be congruent and also consilient with the geo-to be congruent (Fig. 2). They (Crother et al., 1992) also logic history of the region. We present mtDNA sequence detailed the historical biogeography of Bothriechis and data as an additional data set in the inference of the models of the vicariant history of Middle America Bothriechis phylogeny and analyze it separately and com-and determined these to be entirely consilient with bined with previous data. The mtDNA phylogeny is their phylogenetic hypotheses of Bothriechis relationincongruent with the nuclear data sets. Based on a numships. Werman (1997) found that lactate dehydrogeber of factors, we hypothesize that the incongruence is nase phenotypes corroborated his hypothesis of a modue to both mtDNA introgression and lineage sorting.nophyletic Bothriechis. Gutberlet (1998) employed We argue that mtDNA represents extrinsic data and as morphological data in a phylogenetic study of Middle such should be used as a consilient data set. ᭧ 2001 The American pitvipers and his phylogeny corroborated Willi Hennig Society Werman's (1992, 1997) hypothesis, with the placement of Ophryachus as sister to a monophyletic Bothriechis. Most recently, Parkinson (1999) used 12S and 16S Palm-Pitviper Phylogeny 357 mtDNA an ideal choice in which to frame a consilient test (T. W. Taggart et al., submitted for publication). The purpose of this study was to infer a mtDNA phylogeny of Bothriechis and to employ it in a consilient fashion to test the previous nuclear-based phylogeny. METHODSWhole genomic DNA, including the mtDNA, was extracted from muscle and liver using a standard phenol-chloroform protocol. One specimen each of Bothriechis bicolor (Bb), B. marchi (Bm), B. rowleyi (Br), and B. aurifer (Ba); two specimens each of B. lateralis (Bl) and Ophryacus undulatus (Ou); and three specimens of B. schlegelii (Bs) were used. Sources of tissues and/ or DNAs are given in the Appendix. The 12S sequence for B. nigroviridis (Bn) was from Parkinson (1999) and was included in the alignment and subsequent analysis. FIG. 2. The morphology-and allozyme-based phylogeny inferred by Crother et al. (1992).TABLE 6-Continued

The phylogeny of the neotropical palm-pitviper genuswith Ophryachus as the sister lineage. Crother et al. Bothriechis has been previously inferred from morphol-(1992) inferred the phylogeny of Bothriechis with alloogy and allozymes. These nuclear-based data sets were zymes and morphology and found the two data sets found to be congruent and also consilient with the geoto be congruent (Fig. 2). They (Crother et al., 1992) also logic history of the region. We present mtDNA sequence detailed the historical biogeography of Bothriechis and data as an additional data set in the inference of the models of the vicariant history of Middle America Bothriechis phylogeny and analyze it separately and comand determined these to be entirely consilient with bined with previous data. The mtDNA phylogeny is their phylogenetic hypotheses of Bothriechis relationincongruent with the nuclear data sets. Based on a numships. Werman (1997) found that lactate dehydrogeber of factors, we hypothesize that the incongruence is nase phenotypes corroborated his hypothesis of a modue to both mtDNA introgression and lineage sorting.nophyletic Bothriechis. Gutberlet (1998) employed We argue that mtDNA represents extrinsic data and as morphological data in a phylogenetic study of Middle such should be used as a consilient data set. ᭧