Lycodon and Dinodon: One genus or two? Evidence from molecular phylogenetics and morphological comparisons

• Lycodon and Dinodon were supported as sharing a most recent common ancestor.
• Dinodon was paraphyletic and Lycodon was polyphyletic.
• The arrangement of maxillary teeth was not usable to separate Dinodon and Lycodon.

Based on a molecular phylogeny and a comparison of maxillary dentition and morphology, the relationship between the genera Lycodon and Dinodon was investigated. Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analysis of two mitochondrial genes (cyt b and ND4) and two nuclear genes (c-mos and Rag1) suggested that the two genera shared a most recent common ancestor. However, Dinodon was paraphyletic and Lycodon was polyphyletic, each with respect to the other. The results from counts of maxillary teeth indicated that the diagnostic characters used by previous authors to separate Dinodon and Lycodon were not reliable. Taking the molecular and morphological evidence together, we synonymized Dinodon with Lycodon. In addition, the validity of the species L. futsingensis was confirmed to be distinctly different from the other species of Dinodon and Lycodon.

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