Phylogeny of Cerberus (Serpentes: Homalopsinae) and phylogeography of Cerberus rynchops: diversification of a coastal marine snake in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Aim The biogeography of Southeast Asia has been greatly affected by plate tectonic events over the last 10 Myr and changing sea levels during the Quaternary. We investigated how these events may have influenced the evolution of Cerberus Cuvier, a marine coastal snake belonging to the Homalopsinae (Oriental-Australian Rear-fanged Water Snakes). This study is an expansion of a previous study on the biogeography and systematics of Cerberus.Location We obtained species from localities across the range of the widely distributed Cerberus: India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman islands, Myanmar, the Philippines, Borneo, Suluwesi, Sumatra, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Australia.Methods We analysed mtDNA sequences (12S, ND3, ATPase, 2338 nucleotide characters) from 21 localities. The sample consisted of 65 Cerberus rynchops (Schneider), three Cerberus australis (Gray) and four Cerberus microlepis Boulenger. One Homalopsis buccata (Linnaeus), one Bitia hydroides Gray, one Enhydris enhydris (Schneider), and two Enhydris plumbea (Boie) were used as outgroups. ResultsWe produced phylogenetic trees based on parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis. We did not find unambiguous support for the monophly of Cerberus. Cerberus austalis, H. buccata and all other Cerberus populations formed a three-way basal polytomy under parsimony and C. australis formed the sister group to a clade consisting of H. buccata and all other Cerberus in likelihood and Bayesian analysis. The non-Australian Cerberus were monophyletic and consisted of four primary biogeographical clades: Indian and Mayanmar, Philippines, Greater Sunda Islands and Suluwesi, and the Thai-Malay peninsula and Gulf of Thailand. The range of genetic divergence between these clades and Australian Cerberus was 0.06-0.12. Genetic divergence among clades to the west of Australia was less pronounced (Thai-Malay peninsula and Gulf of Thailand ¼ 0.02-0.05; Sunda Islands and Suluwesi ¼ 0.02-0.05; Philippines ¼ 0.02-0.06; India and Myanmar ¼ 0.04-0.06, Philippines ¼ 0.02-0.5).

Phylogeny and biogeography of Philippine bent-toed geckos (Gekkonidae: Cyrtodactylus) contradict a prevailing model of Pleistocene diversification

“…(2) Are the patterns of genetic diversity in Philippine Cyrtodactylus similar to those noted in other lineages (Jones and Kennedy, 2008;McGuire and Kiew, 2001;Steppan et al, 2003;Alfaro et al, 2004)? We evaluated each question using the approximately unbiased (AU) test (Shimodaira and Hasegawa, 2001;Shimodaira, 2002).…”

“…In a study of Cerberus water snakes, Alfaro et al (2004) found strong support for Luzon populations of C. rhynchops to be sister to a clade of western Visayan populations of C. rhynchops and C. microlepis from Luzon. McGuire and Kiew (2001) found strong support for a Mindoro + Sibuyan (Romblon Province) clade within Draco quadrasi, support for the polyphyly of Luzon D. spilopterus, and support for a Luzon + Western Visayan clade within D. spilopterus.…”

“…Recently, studies have revealed phylogenetic patterns inconsistent with the pure PAIC model of diversification (Jones and Kennedy, 2008;McGuire and Kiew, 2001;Evans et al, 2003;Steppan et al, 2003;Alfaro et al, 2004;. In a study of Cerberus water snakes, Alfaro et al (2004) found strong support for Luzon populations of C. rhynchops to be sister to a clade of western Visayan populations of C. rhynchops and C. microlepis from Luzon.…”

Phylogeography of Ceriops tagal (Rhizophoraceae) in Southeast Asia: the land barrier of the Malay Peninsula has caused population differentiation between the Indian Ocean and South China Sea

“…It is also differentiated between the Indian Ocean and South China Sea and has a similar phylogeographic story with C. tagal of sea-level changes and surface currents influencing the present-day genotype distribution (Alfaro et al 2004). The isolation by the Sunda Land is also reflected in the genetic differentiation of the Kuda seahorse, Hippocampus kuda, in the Indian and Pacific Oceans (Lourie et al 2005).…”

Biogeographic origins of the viviparous sea snake assemblage (Elapidae) of the Indian Ocean

“…Hence, it is possible that the Sunda shelf/Indo-Pacifc biogeographic barrier that formed during low sea level stands isolated populations of H. curtus and many other species of sea snakes spanning the IO and WP. Interestingly, this pattern has also been observed in recent phylogeographic studies of two other aquatic snakes: the salt water tolerant amphibious Cerberus rynchops (Alfaro et al, 2004;Murphy et al, 2012) and the viviparous sea snake Hydrophis cyanocinctus (Sanders et al, 2013b). Many marine fishes (Magsino and Juinio-Meñez, 2008;Gaither et al, 2011) and invertebrates (Lavery et al, 1996;Benzie, 1999;Crandall et al, 2008) also show this pattern of Indo-Pacific vicariance.…”