A complex biogeographic history of diversification in Neotropical lancehead pitvipers (Serpentes, Viperidae)

Abstract

Based on the literature, we had predicted that the diversification within the Neotropical snake genus Bothrops occurred along a latitudinal gradient from north to south, with diversification into unoccupied niches through ecological opportunity, not correlated with geoclimatic events. Using a dated phylogeny and estimating likelihoods of ancestral states at cladogenesis events, we reconstructed ancestral areas and assessed major events of the diversification of Bothrops clades, and we also discuss systematic implications for this group. Based on the phylogeny we produced, B. lojanus was not considered as part of the genus Bothrops since the results recovered this species nested within the Bothrocophias clade. We infer that the diversification of the Miocene Bothrops pictus and Bothrops alternatus clades may be related to the uplift of the western slopes of the Andes and the Argentinian Patagonian Andes, respectively. The Pliocene Bothrops taeniatus and Bothrops osbornei clades may be related to the uplift of the eastern and northern Andes, respectively. The Plio‐Pleistocene Bothrops neuwiedi clade may be related to the habitat transitions from a warmer and forested environment to a cooler and open landscape; the Bothrops jararaca (i.e. island endemic species) and Bothrops lanceolatus clades to over‐water dispersal with island speciation; and Bothrops atrox clade to the appearance of the Panamanian land bridge. We found that a multitemporal and multidirectional history of diversification may be correlated with geoclimatic and dispersalist events. We argue that the vacant niche hypothesis by itself does not explain Bothrops diversification.

Short‐term captivity does not affect immediate voluntary thermal maximum of a neotropical pitviper: Implications for behavioral thermoregulation

“…Even though neotropical pitvipers of the Bothrops genus are widespread and occur in several distinct ecoregions (e.g. Amazon forest to the Brazilian Pampas), it is possible that other species from the B. neuwiedi group show a similar profile of thermal response to captivity due to their similar habitats and recent diversification (3–6 million years; Alencar et al, 2016; Hamdan et al, 2019). However, factors such as microclimatic environmental variation might also play a role in determining thermal tolerance, as shown for CT Max (DeWitt & Scheiner, 2004; Franken et al, 2018).…”

Antivenomics and in vivo preclinical efficacy of six Latin American antivenoms towards south-western Colombian Bothrops asper lineage venoms

“…Therefore, our study provides a solid experimental ground to rationalize the reported immunological profiles of INS-COL, UCV, and PROBIOL [38] The remarkable para-specificity exhibited by antivenoms generated against immunization mixtures that included venoms from phylogenetic distant Bothrops species may be ascribed to large conservation of immunoreactive epitope on venom toxins across much of the natural history of Bothrops, a genus that had its roots in South America during the middle Miocene, 14.07 (CI 95 : 16.37-11.75) Mya [88,89] (Fig 13). Biogeographic studies PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES support B. asper as the first species complex to split from the B. atrox group in the Pliocene, around 3.02-2.32 Mya [90], and cladogenesis into lineages began soon thereafter, towards the end of the Pliocene [23]. The realization of the existence of large immunological conservation across Bothrops phylogeny emerged also from studies of the paraspecific effectiveness of the pentabothropic polyvalent antivenom SAB (soro antibotrópico pentavalente) produced by Instituto Butantan (São Paulo, Brazil) [52,76,79,[91][92][93][94] using a pool of venoms from B. jararaca (50%), B. jararacussu (12.5%), B. moojeni (12.5%), B. alternatus (12.5%) and B. neuwiedi (12.5%) [95,96].…”

Genetic variability, management, and conservation implications of the critically endangered Brazilian pitviper Bothrops insularis

“…Genetic parameters presented herein are required by the National Conservation Plan of Insular Herpetofauna (Bataus et al., 2011) and should guide the delimitation of conservation strategies. Besides the fact that the species is included in Brazilian conservation plans, B. insularis should be conserved because of: (a) its diversification process and phylogenetic relationships within the B. jararaca group (Alencar et al, 2016; Grazziotin et al., 2006; Hamdan et al, 2020); (b) the uniqueness of ecological and reproductive traits, such as its diet based on birds as adults and the hemipenis in females (Hoge et al, 1953; Marques et al., 2012; Martins et al, 2002), its unique venom which toxicity changes ontogenetically and is higher upon birds than mammals (Zelanis et al., 2008), and the possibility of using this species as a model for evolutionary and ecological studies (Duarte et al., 1995).…”

“…Then, paternity analyses were only conduct using the possible father ID011F, revealing relatedness values (R) equal to zero among this possible father and the three offspring (ID06FF, ID08FF, and ID09FF; Aiming to improve the genetic contribution of each founder, and to avoid inbreeding, six preferential couples are suggested (Table 4). (Alencar et al, 2016;Grazziotin et al, 2006;Hamdan et al, 2020);…”