A Cryptic Palm-Pitviper Species (Squamata: Viperidae: Bothriechis) From The Costa Rican Highlands, With Notes On The Variation Within B. Nigroviridis
Keywords
Bothriechis nubestris; Costa Rica; Middle America; New species; Reptilia; Snake; Squamata; Taxonomy; Viperidae
Abstract
Middle America is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, harboring an exceptional number of rare and endemic species. This is especially true of Middle American cloud forests, where montane specialists occupy restricted, high-elevation ranges making them attractive candidates for investigating historical biogeography and speciation. One such highland-restricted species, the black speckled palm-pitviper (Bothriechis nigroviridis), occupies the Central, Tilarán, and Talamanca Cordilleras in Costa Rica and Panama. In this study, we investigate the genetic and morphological variation among populations of B. nigroviridis by inferring a multilocus phylogeny (21 individuals) and analyzing meristic scale characters with a principal component analysis (64 individuals). We find B. nigroviridis sensu stricto to be composed of two deeply divergent lineages, one with a restricted range in the northern and central Cordillera Talamanca and the other ranging throughout the Central, Tilarán, and Talamanca Cordilleras. Furthermore, these two lineages are morphologically distinct, with previously unrecognized differences in several characters allowing us to name and diagnose a new species B. nubestris sp. nov. We also examine the genetic and morphological variation within B. nigroviridis and discuss biogeographic hypotheses that may have led to the diversification of Bothriechis lineages.
Publication Date
7-15-2016
Publication Title
Zootaxa
Volume
4138
Issue
2
Number of Pages
271-290
Document Type
Article
Personal Identifier
scopus
DOI Link
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4138.2.3
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
84978416116 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84978416116
STARS Citation
Doan, Tiffany M.; Mason, Andrew J.; Castoe, Todd A.; Sasa, Mahmood; and Parkinson, Christopher L., "A Cryptic Palm-Pitviper Species (Squamata: Viperidae: Bothriechis) From The Costa Rican Highlands, With Notes On The Variation Within B. Nigroviridis" (2016). Scopus Export 2015-2019. 3024.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2015/3024