PHYLOGENY OF VENOM SNAKES FROM SOUTH AMERICA OPEN BIOMES: GEOGRAPHICALLY HIGHLY-STRUCTURED LINEAGES IN PIT VIPERS OF THE BOTHROPS NEUWIEDI GROUP, EVIDENCE OF HYBRIDIZATION AND NEOGENE/QUATERNARY DIVERSIFICATION

STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

Identification of underlying mechanisms shaping the diversification of intraspecific lineages and species complexes is essential to understand speciation processes and ultimately biogeographic patterns across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Combining one of the groups less approached in phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies and poorly understood Neotropical biomes, we chose the challenge of working with venomous snakes of the genus Bothrops occurring along dry diagonal of open biomes of South America. In this seminar I will present the results obtained during my Master’s thesis and the perspectives of my PhD.

Taís is a 4th year sandwich PhD student from University of São Paulo (Brazil) developing her research in phylogeny and phylogeography at the Ecology and Evolution Lab - Butantan Institute, under the supervision of Maria José de Jesus Silva (Butantan Institute, Brazil), Vinícius Xavier Silva (Federal University of Alfenas, Brazil), Helena Gonçalves (CIBIO-InBIO, POPGEN Group) and Fernando Sequeira (CIBIO-InBIO, POPGEN Group),

Image credits: Taís Machado