Updated Paramesotriton phylogeny, with undescribed species

A new paper on Paramesotriton relationships, based on multiple mitochondrial genes, has been published today.

XIAOMING GU, HUI WANG, RONGRONG CHEN, YINGZHOU TIAN & SONG LI, 2011. The phylogenetic relationships of Paramesotriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) based on partial mitochondrial DNA gene sequences. Zootaxa 3150:59-68.

The full paper is available free:
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2012/f/zt03150p068.pdf

I note the following:
Paramesotriton guanxiensis is spelled correctly only once.
Paramesotriton yunwuensis isn't mentioned.
Paramesotriton labiatus is uncorrected and still listed as P.ermizhaoi.
Pachytriton inexpectatus is uncorrected and still listed as P.labiatus.
Paramesotriton longliensis and P.zhijinensis are formally transfered to Allomesotriton [as I have suggested before here, and as originally published, contra Dubois and Raffaelli]. They are also confirmed as separate species. The isolated northern population of P.longliensis was not included.
Paramesotriton caudopunctatus forms two distinct lineages [probably separate species, as I read the data]
An unnamed Paramesotriton is reported, related to P.longliensis [ie, Allomesotriton]. It is described as unusually large [”200cm”], although I would caution that Chinese papers seem to commonly confuse mm and cm! At 200mm, a large female has a total length of about eight inches. It appears to have an SVL of about 4.5 inches. There is a photo of this strange, “horned” creature.
Laotriton is found to be sister to Paramesotriton rather than Pachytriton, but support for this wasn't strong. This only affects arguments of whether it SHOULD be a separate genus, and the name is viable regardless, since Laotriton forms a lineage separate from all other Paramesotriton, regardless of its exact relationship to other genera.

I laughed out loud about the 200cm Paramesotriton. Imagine that....
The link is not working for me, and although the paper can be found regardless, it isn´t working for me either xD
I´m assuming we should treat this paper with extreme care?

Try right-clicking the link and "save target as", and then open the saved file. Sometimes PDFs don't like to open directly through some people's browsers.

I wouldn't be too concerned about 'caution'. It's published in Zootaxa, which is a journal of reliable quality and review. The data look decent, and there are no surprise changes. It just updates relationships based mainly on animals from type localities. Given that previous studies [as for Tylototriton] have often used animals NOT from type localities which proved later to not be identical to type animals, this paper is important because the relationships del with the animals to which the names actually belong. There shouldn't be huge changes because it later turns out the studied animals aren't the same as the ones owning the names.

There is no range-wide survey, no nuclear DNA, and almost no morphology except the Libo animals. If the latter data were included, they might have actually named species or made other significant changes.

Azhael said:

I laughed out loud about the 200cm Paramesotriton. Imagine that....
The link is not working for me, and although the paper can be found regardless, it isn´t working for me either xD
I´m assuming we should treat this paper with extreme care?

Click to expand...

I tired opening the link and file was not found. I also tried "save target as" and my Adobe PDF reader would not open the file either. I was looking forward to read it. Is there a direct link to the Zootaxa journal were we can locate the article that way?

http://www.mappress.com/zootaxa

Then go to the amphibian link, or the 2012 link, or look for volume 3150.

I love genetic mapping its so interesting to find out lineage information. Interesting new species as well the "horns" are an odd feature.
Logan