@INCOLLECTION{TreeBASE2Ref18881, author = {John D Scanlon and Michael S.Y. Lee}, title = {The Major Clades of Living Snakes.}, year = {2010}, keywords = {}, doi = {}, url = {}, pmid = {}, booktitle = {Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes.}, isbn = {}, publisher = {}, address = {}, editor = {}, pages = {}, abstract = {Recent molecular analyses have changed key aspects of our understanding of snake phylogeny and evolution. While many morphological groupings have been upheld, such as the alethinophidians (all living snakes excluding blindsnakes) and caenophidians (filesnakes plus colubroids), others have been convincingly overturned. In particular, the large-gaped tropidophiines are very basal alethinophidians related to Anilius, while the relatively primitive Xenopeltis and Loxocemus are the nearest relatives of pythons. The new molecular phylogeny refutes the widespread view that snake evolution involved gradual elaboration of feeding mechanisms, culminating in an advanced "macrostomatan" clade. Instead, molecular evidence suggests large gape was primitive for snakes (or at least alethinophidians), and reduced repeatedly in many basal, burrowing alethinophidians as well as further elaborated at least twice; this view is consistent with some interpretations of the snake fossil record. Some (but not all) of the new molecular clades exhibit morphological novelties that support their reality. A revised molecular clock analysis of snakes, using five robust fossil calibrations, produces more recent dates for all snake lineages compared to previous molecular clock studies. These shallower dates are much more consistent with the broader fossil record of reptiles, implying far shorter ghost lineages.} }

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