Evidence of population genetic structure within the Florida Worm Lizard, Rhineura floridana (Amphisbaenia : Rhineuridae)

    Authors

    A. Mulvaney; T. A. Castoe; K. G. Ashton; K. L. Krysko;C. L. Parkinson

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Herpetol.

    Keywords

    PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS; SCRUB; HABITAT; SUBSTITUTION; SEQUENCES; EVOLUTION; Zoology

    Abstract

    The Florida Worm Lizard (Rhineura floridana) is the only extant representative of the suborder Amphisbaenia occurring in the United States and the only living representative of the Rhineuridae. We updated the known distribution of this species from 510 records with known localities. We further examined geographic genetic structure within this species using 1360 bp of mitochondrial DNA sequence data from 18 samples of R. floridana. Our results suggest an ancient divergence between populations in the north-central Florida peninsula from populations in the south-central peninsula. High genetic distances are observed within south-central populations, whereas genetic structure within northern populations is less discrete and characterized by much shallower divergences. Our findings suggest that south-central populations may be candidates for taxonomic recognition (or recognition as distinct management units) if additional genetic and morphological data support our results.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Herpetology

    Volume

    39

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    118

    Last Page

    124

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000228053200015

    ISSN

    0022-1511

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