Abstract
Ten years ago, nine species of West Indian Boas (genus Chilabothrus) were recognized from the Greater Antilles and Lucayan Archipelago. Since then, an additional five species have been described or elevated, necessitating a revision of the phylogeny for the genus. I obtained DNA samples from every species of Chilabothrus, including the newly described C. ampelophis, and generated genomic data using ultraconserved elements sequencing. I used bioinformatic approaches to clean and analyze the dataset, then used phylogenomic analyses to construct a new genomic-scale tree of life for the genus. This new phylogeny resolves some previously recalcitrant nodes in the phylogeny, and includes the placement of C. ampelophis, thus providing a much improved and more accurate view of the evolutionary relationships of these boas. This phylogeny will be useful in upcoming studies of the evolution of specialization and historical biogeography in the genus.
How to Cite
Ogburn, W., (2022) “Phylogenomic Data Provide Resolution to the West Indian Boa (genus Chilabothrus) Tree of Life”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 35(1).
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