Re: New Taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta complex

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Posted by LBB on October 17, 2001 at 06:52:02:

In Reply to: New Taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta complex posted by Jan Grathwohl on October 15, 2001 at 13:32:11:

There is a manuscript in the works rejecting it. There are simply way too many holes in it. To just name a "few":

1) his new E. alleghaniensis comes from well within the range of his area of "taxonomic uncertaintly"

2) he used "one" slowly evolving gene (cyt b) to create a phylogeny, which shows matrilinear lines
and incorporates a mere 5% of the snake mtDNA

3) he "threw out intermediates" and "color pattern" in his analyses

The reviewers clearly do not know much about Elaphe obsoleta.

: Hi everybody

: What is your opinion on the new taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta-complex?

: The taxonomy i'm refering to, is the one published by Burbrink in the latest edition of Herpetological Monographs.

: Burbrink, F.T. Systematics of the Eastern Ratsnake Complex (Elaphe obsoleta). Herpetological Monographs, 15: 1-53.

: In this study, all former subspecies are now regarded as belonging to four individual species, Elaphe alleganiensis, Elaphe bairdi, Elaphe obsoleta and Elaphe spiloides.

: regards

: Jan Grathwohl
: Nordic Herpetological Society (www.nhf.dk)

Follow Ups:

Re: New Taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta complex WW 10/17/01 (4)
- Re: New Taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta complex Frank Burbrink 10/18/01 (3)
  - Re: New Taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta complex WW 10/18/01 (2)
    - Re: New Taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta complex Frank Burbrink 10/19/01 (1)
      - Can you put this into simpler terms? ... more ... Patricia Sherman 11/28/01 (0)

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: There is a manuscript in the works rejecting it. There are simply way too many holes in it. To just name a "few": : 1) his new E. alleghaniensis comes from well within the range of his area of "taxonomic uncertaintly" : 2) he used "one" slowly evolving gene (cyt b) to create a phylogeny, which shows matrilinear lines : and incorporates a mere 5% of the snake mtDNA : 3) he "threw out intermediates" and "color pattern" in his analyses : The reviewers clearly do not know much about Elaphe obsoleta. : : Hi everybody : : What is your opinion on the new taxonomy of the Elaphe obsoleta-complex? : : The taxonomy i'm refering to, is the one published by Burbrink in the latest edition of Herpetological Monographs. : : Burbrink, F.T. Systematics of the Eastern Ratsnake Complex (Elaphe obsoleta). Herpetological Monographs, 15: 1-53. : : In this study, all former subspecies are now regarded as belonging to four individual species, Elaphe alleganiensis, Elaphe bairdi, Elaphe obsoleta and Elaphe spiloides. : : regards : : Jan Grathwohl : : Nordic Herpetological Society (www.nhf.dk)

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