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RE: Genealogy of Scaly Reptiles Rewritten by New Research

Vidal and Hedges, 2005. The phylogeny of squamate reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) inferred from nine nuclear protein-coding genes. Comptes Rendus Biologies. 328, 1000-1008.

The topology and nomenclature found in the paper is-

|--Dibamia
|  `--Dibamidae
`--Bifurcata (nov.)
  |--Gekkota
  |  |--Gekkoninae
  |  `--Pygopodinae
  `--Unidentata (nov.)
     |--Scinciformata (nov.)
     |  |--Scincidae
     |  `--+--Cordylidae
     |     `--Xantusiidae
     `--Episquamata (nov.)
        |--Laterata (nov.)
        |  |--Teiformata (nov.)
        |  |  `--Teiioidea
        |  `--Lacertibaenia (nov.)
        |     |--Lacertiformata (nov.)
        |     |  `--Lacertidae
        |     `--Amphisbaenia
        |        |--Rhineuridae
        |        `--+--Bipedidae
        |           `--+--Trogonophidae
        |              `--Amphisbaeinidae
        `--Toxicofera (nov.)
           |--Iguania
           |  |--Leiocephalus
           |  `--Iguaninae
           |--Anguimorpha
           |  |--Varanidae
           |  `--+--Helodermatidae
           |     `--Anguidae
           `--Serpentes

All nodes have Bayesian posterior priorities of 100, most have maximum liklihood bootstrap percentages of 100 (except Bifurcata- 96; Xantusiidae+Cordylidae- 94; Unidentata- 86; Amphisbaenia- 96). Iguania and Anguimorpha were weakly combined to the exclusion of Serpentes with a BPP of 58 and a ML bootstrap of 53. I agree Bifurcata, Unidentata, Episquamata, Toxicofera and Lacertibaenia are useful. But Scincoidea already exists for Scinciformata, and Lacertiformes for Laterata. Teiformata and Lacertiformata seem superfluous. I think the philosophy for most was to conserve equal 'ranks' of suffices. But Laterata was specifically advocated because Lacertiformes didn't originally include amphisbaenians and doesn't describe their shape accurately, neither of which I feel is a good reason to rename a clade. Lee's (1998) definition of the clade doesn't explicitly exclude amphisbaenians. It's the Eueulipotyphla philosophy so common in mammal taxonomy.

For comparison, the most recent major morphological analysis of squamates (Lee, 2005) found-
|--Iguania
| `--Iguanidae
`--Scleroglossa
|--Annulata
| |--Dibamidae
| `--Amphisbaenia
|--Gekkota
| |--Gekkoninae
| `--Pygopodidae
|--Scincoidea
| |--Scincidae
| `--Cordylidae
|--Xantusiidae
|--Lacertiformes
| |--Lacertidae
| `--Teiioidea
`--Anguimorpha
|--Anguidae
`--Varanoidea
|--Helodermatidae
`--Thecoglossa
|--Varanidae
`--Serpentes
Only nodes with >90% bootstrap are shown.

Constraining results of his analysis to conform to the molecular topology results in the following tree-
|--Dibamidae
`--Bifurcata
|--Gekkota
| |--Eublepharinae
| `--+--Gekkoninae
| `--+--Diplodactylinae
| `--Pygopodinae
`--Unidentata
|--Scincoidea
| |--Scincidae
| `--+--Cordylidae
| `--Xantusiidae
`--Episquamata
|--Lacertiformes
| |--Teiioidea
| | |--Teiidae
| | `--Gymnophthalmidae
| `--Lacertibaenia
| |--Lacertidae
| `--+--Polyglyphanodon
| `--+--Macrocephalosaurus
| `--+--Sinoamphisbaenia
| `--Amphisbaenia
| |--Rhineuridae
| `--+--Bipedidae
| `--+--Trogonophidae
| `--Amphisbaeinidae
`--Toxicofera
|--Anguimorpha
| |?-+--Shinisaurus
| | `--Xenosaurus
| `--+--+--Varanus
| | `--Lanthanotus
| `--+--Helodermatidae
| `--+--Anguidae
| `?-+--Shinisaurus
| `--Xenosaurus
`--+--Iguania
| |--Iguanidae
| `--+--Chameleonidae
| `--+--Agaminae
| `--Leiolepidinae
`--Pythonomorpha
|--+--Aigialosauridae
| `--Mosasauridae
`--+--Dolichosauridae
`--+--Adriosaurus
`--Ophidia
|--Pachyrhachis
|--Haasiophis
`--Serpentes

Mickey Mortimer