A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes

By R. Pyron, F. Burbrink, John J. Wiens. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2013

1,604 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The extant squamates (>9400 known species of lizards and snakes) are one of the most diverse and conspicuous radiations of terrestrial vertebrates, but no studies have attempted to reconstruct a phylogeny for the group with large-scale taxon sampling. Such an estimate is invaluable for comparative evolutionary studies, and to address their classification. Here, we present the first large-scale phylogenetic estimate for Squamata. The estimated phylogeny contains 4161 species, representing all currently recognized families and subfamilies. The analysis is based on up to 12896 base pairs of sequence data per species (average = 2497 bp) from 12 genes, including seven nuclear loci (BDNF, c-mos, NT3, PDC, R35, RAG-1, and RAG-2), and five mitochondrial genes (12S, 16S, cytochrome b, ND2, and ND4). The tree provides important confirmation for recent estimates of higher-level squamate phylogeny based on molecular data (but with more limited taxon sampling), estimates that are very different from previous morphology-based hypotheses. The tree also includes many relationships that differ from previous molecular estimates and many that differ from traditional taxonomy. We present a new large-scale phylogeny of squamate reptiles that should be a valuable resource for future comparative studies. We also present a revised classification of squamates at the family and subfamily level to bring the taxonomy more in line with the new phylogenetic hypothesis. This classification includes new, resurrected, and modified subfamilies within gymnophthalmid and scincid lizards, and boid, colubrid, and lamprophiid snakes.

Subfields: Genetics, Global and Planetary Change, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e50dbb1373dbe9e123531a16b3451a9678fa0c73

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

In Global and Planetary Change

In Molecular Biology

Citations in the corpus

Atlas of Brazilian Snakes: Verified Point-Locality Maps to Mitigate the Wallacean Shortfall in a Megadiverse Snake Fauna (2019, background): “, 2019) except “Scolecophidia,” a group recently found to be paraphyletic in molecular analyses (Pyron et al., 2013; Figueroa et al., 2016; Zheng and Wiens, 2016).”
Correlates of extinction risk in squamate reptiles: the relative importance of biology, geography, threat and range size (2016, positive): “177 Most of the relationships between genera and families within our non-dated 178 phylogeny were derived from the molecular phylogeny by Pyron et al. (2013) and revised 179 using a more recent phylogeny on the origin of viviparity (Pyron & Burbrink, 2014).”
Los últimos 30 años de estudios de la familia de lagartijas más diversa de Argentina. Actualización taxonómica y sistemática de Liolaemidae (2014, neutral): “…et al. (2004) para el grupo de L. darwinii; Ávila et al. (2006) y Abdala (2007) para el grupo de L. boulengeri; Morando et al. (2007) para los grupos de L. bibronii y de L. gracilis, Quinteros (2011, 2013) para el grupo alticolor – bibronii y Abdala y Juárez (2013) para el grupo de L. anomalus.”
Tree of Life Reveals Clock-Like Speciation and Diversification (2014, background): “estimated timetrees from two published phylogenetic trees containing large numbers of species (Pyron et al. 2013; Pyron and Wiens 2011), each a composite of public sequence data from many earlier studies and authors.”
Higher level molecular phylogeny of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) (2014, background): “This result is in line with the findings of studies with comparable loci numbers and even higher levels of missing data (75% in Couvreur et al., 2010; 81% in Pyron et al., 2013).”