Relatively little work has been done on the population genetics and phylogenetic patterns in Notophthalmus viridescens (Eastern Newt). The most recent study by Gabor and Nice (2004) divided the sampled populations into northern and southern groups rather than along taxonomic lines, and patterns of genetic variation indicated the southern populations were isolated and undergoing genetic drift. To re-evaluate these patterns, we collected sequence data on the mitochondrial ND2 and the flanking tRNAMet genes in fifteen South Carolina populations in the piedmont, sandhills, and lower coastal plain where three of the four subspecies were located (we found no Eastern Newts in the upper coastal plain). Haplotypes did not group by taxonomic designation in phylogenetic analyses, suggesting introgressive hybridization has occurred. Statistical parsimony analysis resolved the haplotype groups into two geographic groups, and partitioning of genetic variation between these groups was significant. We suggest these groups represent populations established during the last glacial maximum, a pattern that has been observed in other pond-breeding salamanders.
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1 January 2014
Phylogeographic Patterns Among the Subspecies of Notophthalmus viridescens (Eastern Newt) in South Carolina
Gavin R. Lawson,
Eran S. Kilpatrick
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Southeastern Naturalist
Vol. 13 • No. 3
September 2014
Vol. 13 • No. 3
September 2014