ON THE PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF PACHYRHACHIS WITHIN SNAKES: A RESPONSE TO Zaher (1998)

Concerning the snake interrelationships of Pachyrhachis problematicus Haas, 1979, Zaher (1998) criticized Caldwell and Lee (1997) and proposed an alternative phylogenetic hypothesis. The following is a response to Zaher’s (1998) criticisms and a critique of Zaher’s characters and resultant phylogeny. I do not present a new analysis of snake interrelationships, but rather present alternative cladograms to the one found by Zaher (1998). This is accomplished by reconstructing his probable character matrix with character states recoded against observable morphologies.