Albumin Immunological Evidence and the Relationships of Sea Snakes

Abstract

The evolutionary relationships among sea snakes, and between sea snakes and terrestrial elapids were examined by microcomplement fixation analyses using antisera to albumins from the genera Hydrophis, Laticauda and Micrurus. The sea snakes comprise 3 distinctive groups, the Hydrophis, Aipysurus and Laticauda groups. These data corroborate other molecular and morphological studies of these snakes. All available data indicate that diversification of the Hydrophis group is relatively recent, and that the genus Hydrophis is paraphyletic. The question of a single or multiple origins for the sea snake lineages from terrestrial elapids cannot be resolved with the albumin immunological data. Of the terrestrial elapids examined, the Australian forms with the exception of Demensia psammophis are close to Hydrophis and Laticauda. Bungarus, Ophiophagus and Demansia are close to none of the reference antisera. Micrurus seems remote from all elapids tested, despite a previous suggestion allying it with Laticauda.