MESOLEPTOS AND THE ORIGIN OF SNAKES 



139 



Clade D: 2,82 

 Ophidia: 5,98 

 Clade C: 1,66 

 Clade B: 1,50 



Clade A: 3,70 



Pythonomorpha: 7,99 

 Thecoglossa: 9,92 

 Varanoidea: 7,95 

 2,61 

 Anguimorpha: 4,75 



Scleroglossa: 6,93 



Ophidia: 4,96 

 B: 1,46 



Clade A: 5,79 



nomorpha: 7,99 

 Thecoglossa: 7,85 

 Varanoidea: 7,91 

 1,51 

 uimorpha: 1,57 



Fig. 3. The phylogenetic affinities of Mesoleptos, based on cladistic analyses of 248 characters across squamates. (A) Analysis with multistate characters 

 ordered, strict consensus of 3 trees, length 672, consistency index 0.46, retention index 0.71. (B) Analysis with multistate characters unordered, strict 

 consensus of 3 trees, length 639, consistency index 0.48, retention index 0.71. First number next to each clade refers to branch support (Bremer, 1988); 

 second number refers to bootstrapping frequency. Clades immediately relevant to the affinities of Mesoleptos are in bold and are discussed in the text. 

 The other more inclusive clades are discussed in Lee (1998). Aquatic terminal taxa are indicated in bold. 



