Indonesian Institute of Sciences

About: Indonesian Institute of Sciences is a facility organization based out in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Genus. The organization has 4795 authors who have published 10544 publications receiving 76990 citations. The organization is also known as: Indonesian Institute of Sciences Cibinong, Indonesia.

Uncoupling ecological innovation and speciation in sea snakes (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae, Hydrophiini)

Abstract: The viviparous sea snakes (Hydrophiini) are by far the most successful living marine reptiles, with ∼60 species that comprise a prominent component of shallow-water marine ecosystems throughout the Indo-West Pacific. Phylogenetically nested within the ∼100 species of terrestrial Australo-Melanesian elapids (Hydrophiinae), molecular timescales suggest that the Hydrophiini are also very young, perhaps only ∼8–13 Myr old. Here, we use likelihood-based analyses of combined phylogenetic and taxonomic data for Hydrophiinae to show that the initial invasion of marine habitats was not accompanied by elevated diversification rates. Rather, a dramatic three to six-fold increase in diversification rates occurred at least 3–5 Myr after this transition, in a single nested clade: the Hydrophis group accounts for ∼80% of species richness in Hydrophiini and ∼35% of species richness in (terrestrial and marine) Hydrophiinae. Furthermore, other co-distributed lineages of viviparous sea snakes (and marine Laticauda, Acrochordus and homalopsid snakes) are not especially species rich. Invasion of the oceans has not (by itself) accelerated diversification in Hydrophiini; novelties characterizing the Hydrophis group alone must have contributed to its evolutionary and ecological success.