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. 2019 Apr 17;14(4):e0214889.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214889. eCollection 2019.

Evolutionary history of burrowing asps (Lamprophiidae: Atractaspidinae) with emphasis on fang evolution and prey selection

Frank Portillo  1 , Edward L Stanley  2 , William R Branch  3   4 , Werner Conradie  3   5 , Mark-Oliver Rödel  6 , Johannes Penner  6   7 , Michael F Barej  6 , Chifundera Kusamba  8 , Wandege M Muninga  8 , Mwenebatu M Aristote  9 , Aaron M Bauer  10 , Jean-François Trape  11 , Zoltán T Nagy  12 , Piero Carlino  13 , Olivier S G Pauwels  14 , Michele Menegon  15 , Ivan Ineich  16 , Marius Burger  17   18 , Ange-Ghislain Zassi-Boulou  19 , Tomáš Mazuch  20 , Kate Jackson  21 , Daniel F Hughes  1 , Mathias Behangana  22 , Eli Greenbaum  1
Affiliations

Evolutionary history of burrowing asps (Lamprophiidae: Atractaspidinae) with emphasis on fang evolution and prey selection

Frank Portillo et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Atractaspidines are poorly studied, fossorial snakes that are found throughout Africa and western Asia, including the Middle East. We employed concatenated gene-tree analyses and divergence dating approaches to investigate evolutionary relationships and biogeographic patterns of atractaspidines with a multi-locus data set consisting of three mitochondrial (16S, cyt b, and ND4) and two nuclear genes (c-mos and RAG1). We sampled 91 individuals from both atractaspidine genera (Atractaspis and Homoroselaps). Additionally, we used ancestral-state reconstructions to investigate fang and diet evolution within Atractaspidinae and its sister lineage (Aparallactinae). Our results indicated that current classification of atractaspidines underestimates diversity within the group. Diversification occurred predominantly between the Miocene and Pliocene. Ancestral-state reconstructions suggest that snake dentition in these taxa might be highly plastic within relatively short periods of time to facilitate adaptations to dynamic foraging and life-history strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

MFB is affiliated with Flora Fauna & Man, Ecological Services Ltd. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Map of sub-Saharan Africa and western Asia/Middle East, showing sampling localities for atractaspidines used in this study.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Maximum-likelihood phylogeny of Atractaspidinae with combined 16S, ND4, cyt b, c-mos, and RAG1 data sets.
Closed circles denote clades with Bayesian posterior probability values ≥ 0.95. Diamonds denote clades with strong support in both maximum likelihood analyses (values ≥ 70) and Bayesian analyses (posterior probability values ≥ 0.95).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Maximum-likelihood phylogeny of Atractaspidinae and Aparallactinae with combined 16S, ND4, cyt b, c-mos, and RAG1 data sets.
Diamonds denote clades with maximum likelihood values ≥ 70 and Bayesian posterior probability values ≥ 0.95; closed circles denote clades with Bayesian posterior probability values ≥ 0.95.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Phylogeny resulting from BEAST, based on four calibration points.
Nodes with high support (posterior probability ≥ 0.95) are denoted by black circles. Median age estimates are provided along with error bars representing the 95% highest posterior densities (HPD) (Table 3).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Computed tomography (CT) scans of aparallactine and atractaspidine genera.
Homoroselaps lacteus (CAS 173258) (A); Atractaspis bibronii (CAS 111670) (B); Chilorhinophis gerardi (CAS 159106) (C); Polemon christyi (CAS 147905) (D); Aparallactus niger (AMNH 142406) (E); Aparallactus modestus (CAS 111865) (F); Aparallactus capensis (G); Macrelaps microlepidotus (H); Amblyodipsas polylepis (CAS 173555) (I); Xenocalamus bicolor (CAS 248601) (J).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Ancestral-state reconstructions with ML optimization on the ML trees from the concatenated analyses shown in Fig 2.
(A) fang morphology, (B) dietary preference. Aparallactus 1 = A. niger; Aparallactus 2 = A. modestus; Aparallactus 3 = A. capensis, A. cf. capensis, A. guentheri, A. jacksonii, A. lunulatus, and A. werneri; Amblyodipsas 1 = A. concolor; Amblyodipsas 2 = A. dimidiata, A. polylepis, and A. unicolor; Amblyodipsas 3 = A. ventrimaculata; Amblyodipsas 4 = A. microphthalma.
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