Revision of the Genus Leiopython Hubrecht 1879 (Serpentes: Pythonidae) with the Redescription of Taxa Recently Described by Hoser (2000) and the Description of New Species

Schleip, Wulf D.

doi:10.1670/06-182r5.1

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…This could have occurred via natural processes, however, an alternative is that the either the Manus or Mussau population has anthropogenic origins. It has also been suggested that the two species of pythons recorded on Mussau have anthropogenic origins (Schleip 2008, Whitmore et al 2015. Similarly large Gehyra have been reported as a historically important food source in some areas of the Pacific (Gibbons andClunie 1984, Beckon 1992), and Flecks et al (2012) argued that very isolated records of Gehyra georgepottshaasti and Gehyra vorax in French Polynesia most likely had anthropogenic origins.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new biogeographically disjunct giant gecko (Gehyra: Gekkonidae: Reptilia) from the East Melanesian Islands

Oliver

Clegg

Fisher

et al. 2016

Zootaxa

807

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The East Melanesian Islands have been a focal area for research into island biogeography and community ecology. However, previously undescribed and biogeographically significant new species endemic to this region continue to be discovered. Here we describe a phylogenetically distinct (~20% divergence at the mitochondrial ND2 gene) and biogeographically disjunct new species of gecko in the genus Gehyra, from the Admiralty and St Matthias Islands. Gehyra rohan sp. nov. can be distinguished from all congeners by the combination of its very large size, ring of bright orange scales around the eye, moderate degree of lateral folding on the limbs and body, and aspects of head, body and tail scalation. Molecular data indicate mid to late Miocene divergence of the new species from nearest relatives occurring nearly 2000 kilometres away in Vanuatu and Fiji. Large Gehyra have not been recorded on the intervening large islands of the Bismark Archipelago (New Britain and New Ireland) and the Solomon Islands, suggesting this dispersal pre-dated the current configuration of these islands, extinction in intervening regions, or potentially elements of both. Conversely, low genetic divergence between disjunct samples on Manus and Mussau implies recent overseas dispersal via either natural or anthropogenic means.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new biogeographically disjunct giant gecko (Gehyra: Gekkonidae: Reptilia) from the East Melanesian Islands

Oliver

Clegg

Fisher

et al. 2016

Zootaxa

807

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“…N. 'pelagicus' was first reported from the St. Matthias Group by Brown (1955) based on specimens collected in 1944, and this remains one of the least studied island groups in the Papuan Region. Schleip (2008) discussed the Leiopython from the St. Matthias group and proposed that they are not endemic (contra Hoser 2000). A further assessment of the composition and morphological variation may lead to a better resolution of the biogeography and systematics of this fauna.…”

Section: Emerging Relationships Among Nactus Pelagicus Group Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A preliminary assessment of the Nactus pelagicus species group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in New Guinea and a new species from the Admiralty Islands

Zug

Fisher

2012

Zootaxa

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The Slender-toed Geckos (Nactus) currently have four recognized species in New Guinea, and these species divide intotwo sister clades: a pelagicus clade and a vankampeni clade (Heinicke et al. 2010). The latter contains three dwarf species.The former consists of five bisexual populations, of which numerous New Guinea populations are uncharacterized no-menclaturally and lumped under the epithet ‘pelagicus.’ This report and description of a new species of the pelagicusgroup from Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands encourages us to offer a preliminary assessment of morphology and diversity in New Guinea ‘pelagicus’ populations.

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“…However, the morphological analyses by Kluge (1993) and Rawlings et al (2008) clearly show support for the partition of Bothrochilus and Leiopython. Schleip (2008Schleip ( , 2014 expanded Leiopython to include six species (genetic samples from four of these taxa are not available for study). It is our observation, based on decades of experience with B. boa, L. albertisii and L. meridionalis, and after looking at specimens and photographs of specimens of the other four Leiopython species described by Schleip (2008Schleip ( , 2014) that there is a common general appearance and numerous shared morphological characters (McDowell, 1975); Kluge, 1993) of all species of Leiopython that are not shared with Bothrochilus boa.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the systematics and taxonomy of Pythonidae: an ancient serpent lineage

Barker¹,

Barker²,

Davis

et al. 2015

Zool J Linn Soc

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Here we review research over the past quarter century regarding the systematics and taxonomy of an ancient, popular and economically valuable group of snakes referred to as pythons (Serpentes, Pythonidae). All recent phylogenetic studies recognize the pythons as monophyletic; however, the phylogenetic relationships at supraspecific levels are conflicting, and many of the relationships recovered are paraphyletic. We identify several taxonomic changes as necessary to clarify supraspecific relationships and which resolve the issue of paraphyly recovered in several studies. Overall, our review of the phylogenetic systematics of pythons points to considerable incongruence among recovered relationships. Instances of paraphyly emerge, low node support is detected, and terminal taxa are unstable across phylogenetic hypotheses. We thus recognize that pythonid gene trees have been unable, for various reasons, to reveal the true species tree. This occurrence is not unexpected and can arise from incomplete taxon sampling, long-branch attraction and repulsion, homoplasy, ancestral polymorphism, and, more notably, the anomaly zone. These phenomena ultimately yield incomplete lineage sorting, or the failure of lineages to coalesce over evolutionary time. We discuss future directions to resolve these troubling issues. Without resolution, adaptive hypotheses about pythons will be limited, including hypotheses of geographic origin. Analyses that recover the clade Python as sister to the Indo-Australian clade are interpreted to support a Laurasian origin of Pythonidae. In contrast, a Gondwanan origin is supported when the Indo-Australian clade is recovered as basal to the Python clade. We describe the morphology of two recently proposed genera. Finally, we designate and describe the neotype for Morelia azurea and offer a list of the currently accepted python species and their taxonomy.

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Revision of the Genus Leiopython Hubrecht 1879 (Serpentes: Pythonidae) with the Redescription of Taxa Recently Described by Hoser (2000) and the Description of New Species

Cited by 14 publications

References 31 publications

A new biogeographically disjunct giant gecko (Gehyra: Gekkonidae: Reptilia) from the East Melanesian Islands

A new biogeographically disjunct giant gecko (Gehyra: Gekkonidae: Reptilia) from the East Melanesian Islands

A preliminary assessment of the Nactus pelagicus species group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in New Guinea and a new species from the Admiralty Islands

A review of the systematics and taxonomy of Pythonidae: an ancient serpent lineage

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