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Genetic evidence for wild‐living Aspideretes nigricans and a molecular phylogeny of South Asian softshell turtles (Reptilia: Trionychidae: Aspideretes, Nilssonia )
Author(s) -
Praschag P.,
Hundsdörfer A. K.,
Reza A. H. M. A.,
Fritz U.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
zoologica scripta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.204
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1463-6409
pISSN - 0300-3256
DOI - 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2007.00282.x
Subject(s) - biology , monophyly , zoology , clade , maximum parsimony , molecular phylogenetics , phylogenetic tree , phylogenetics , sister group , genus , genetics , gene
Aspideretes nigricans was long thought to be one of the rarest turtle species of the world, being restricted to a single site in Bangladesh; its specific distinctness was repeatedly doubted. Using mtDNA sequence data of all four Aspideretes species, we provide evidence that A. nigricans is a distinct species that is sister to A. hurum . Furthermore, A. nigricans is not endemic to Bangladesh, but also occurs in Assam, India. While all applied phylogenetic analyses (Bayesian Analysis, Maximum Likelihood, Maximum Parsimony, Neighbor Joining) strongly suggest a well‐supported clade containing the four Aspideretes species and Nilssonia formosa , the monophyly of Aspideretes is at best weakly supported. We propose to synonymise the genera Aspideretes Hay, 1904 and Nilssonia Gray, 1872, resulting in an expanded genus Nilssonia with the species N. formosa (Gray, 1869), N. gangetica (Cuvier, 1825), N. hurum (Gray, 1831), N. leithii (Gray, 1872) and N. nigricans (Anderson, 1875). Genetic structure within N. nigricans is weak, while we detected two distinct genetic lineages within N. gangetica , one occurring in the Brahmaputra River system and the other in the Ganges and Indus River basins.