Unveiling underestimated species diversity within the Central American Coralsnake, a medically important complex of venomous taxa
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Jowers, Michael JoséphEditorial
Springer Nature
Date
2023-07-19Referencia bibliográfica
Jowers, M.J., Smart, U., Sánchez-Ramírez, S. et al. Unveiling underestimated species diversity within the Central American Coralsnake, a medically important complex of venomous taxa. Sci Rep 13, 11674 (2023). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37734-5]
Sponsorship
National Science Foundation (grant no. DEB-0416160 to ENS),; Instituto Bioclon (grant to ENS); UTA-Biology startup funds (to ENS); Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, fellowship number SFRH/ BPD/109148/2015); Maria Zambrano grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education and Next Generation EU.; Brazilian National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) (314287/2020-5); European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Grant Agreement Number 857251Abstract
Coralsnakes of the genus Micrurus are a diverse group of venomous snakes ranging from the southern
United States to southern South America. Much uncertainty remains over the genus diversity, and
understanding Micrurus systematics is of medical importance. In particular, the widespread Micrurus
nigrocinctus spans from Mexico throughout Central America and into Colombia, with a number of
described subspecies. This study provides new insights into the phylogenetic relationships within
M. nigrocinctus by examining sequence data from a broad sampling of specimens from Mexico,
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The recovered phylogenetic relationships
suggest that M. nigrocinctus is a species complex originating in the Pliocene and composed of at least
three distinct species-level lineages. In addition, recovery of highly divergent clades supports the
elevation of some currently recognized subspecies to the full species rank while others may require
synonymization.