Plethodontid salamander mitochondrial genomics: A parsimony evaluation of character conflict and implications for historical biogeography

A new parsimony analysis of 27 complete mitochondrial genomic sequences is conducted to investigate the phylogenetic relationships of plethodontid salamanders. This analysis focuses on the amount of character conflict between phylogenetic trees recovered from newly conducted parsimony searches and the Bayesian and maximum likelihood topology reported by Mueller et al. (2004; PNAS, 101, 13820–13825). Strong support for Hemidactylium as the sister taxon to all other plethodontids is recovered from parsimony analyses. Plotting area relationships on the most parsimonious phylogenetic tree suggests that eastern North America is the origin of the family Plethodontidae supporting the “Out of Appalachia” hypothesis. A new taxonomy that recognizes clades recovered from phylogenetic analyses is proposed. © The Willi Hennig Society 2005.