Intellectual Merit - Coralsnakes represent an extraordinary radiation of highly venomous, brightly colored snakes that occur through Asia and the Americas. The phylogenetic relationships of these snakes, however, are poorly known, and their taxonomy is chaotic. This project will investigate the evolutionary relationships of coralsnakes through the collection and analysis of a multigenomic (nuclear and mitochondrial DNA) and morphological character dataset encompassing nearly all coralsnake taxa. Results will be utilized to guide taxonomic amendments at the species and genus levels. In addition to resolving the currently chaotic state of coralsnake taxonomy, this work will explore theoretical and practical issues of combining and analyzing diverse phylogenetic characters to solve systematic questions. Also, this work will provide a strong evolutionary framework for future coralsnake research and establish a rich morphological and molecular database for coralsnakes from which to launch future studies on natural history, mimicry, venom evolution, therapeutics, and clinical research.
Broader Impacts - Undergraduate and graduate students from several countries (including students from underrepresented groups in science) will be trained in collection and analysis of molecular and morphological data. The project will forge strong collaborative networks and partnerships in diverse countries (in Asia and Latin America), whereby collaborators will participate in increasing taxonomic sampling, morphological and molecular data collection, and manuscript preparation. A multilingual website will be erected to provide general information about coral snakes, taxonomic updates, available research results and publications, unpublished supplemental data, an index of coral snake researchers, and be used to attract additional collaboration and researchers.
