Phylogeography of the smooth greensnake, <i>Opheodrys vernalis</i> (Squamata: Colubridae): divergent lineages and variable demographics in a widely distributed yet enigmatic species
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Phylogeographic studies can uncover robust details about the population structure, demographics, and diversity of species. The smooth greensnake, Opheodrys vernalis, is a small, cryptic snake occupying mesic grassland and sparsely wooded habitats. Although O. vernalis has a wide geographical range, many metapopulations are patchy and some are declining. We used mitochondrial DNA and double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing to construct the first phylogeographic assessment of O. vernalis. Genomic analysis of 119 individuals (mitochondrial DNA) and a subset of another 45 smooth greensnakes (nuclear DNA; N = 3031 single nucleotide polymorphisms) strongly supports two longitudinally separated lineages, with admixture in the Great Lakes region. Post-Pleistocene secondary contact best explains admixture from populations advancing northwards. Overall, populations expressed low heterozygosity, variable inbreeding rates, and moderate to high differentiation. Disjunct populations in the Rocky Mountains and central Great Plains regions might be contracting relicts, whereas northerly populations in more continuous mesic habitats (e.g., Prairie Pothole region, southern Canada) had signals of population expansion. Broadly, conservation management efforts should be focused on local populations, because habitat connectivity may facilitate gene flow and genetic diversity.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".