Atractaspidines are poorly studied, fossorial snakes that are found throughout Africa and western Asia, including the Middle East. We employed concatenated gene-tree analyses and divergence dating approaches to investigate evolutionary relationships and biogeographic patterns of atractaspidines with a multi-locus data set consisting of three mitochondrial (16S, cyt b, and ND4) and two nuclear genes (c-mos and RAG1). We sampled 91 individuals from both atractaspidine genera (Atractaspis and Homoroselaps). Additionally, we used ancestral-state reconstructions to investigate fang and diet evolution within Atractaspidinae and its sister lineage (Aparallactinae). Our results indicated that current classification of atractaspidines underestimates diversity within the group. Diversification occurred predominantly between the Miocene and Pliocene. Ancestral-state reconstructions suggest that snake dentition in these taxa might be highly plastic within relatively short periods of time to facilitate adaptations to dynamic foraging and life-history strategies.

African Amphibian Conservation Research Group Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management North West University Potchefstroom South Africa

Département des Vertébrés Récents Institut Royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique Brussels Belgium

Department of Biological Sciences University of Texas at El Paso El Paso Texas United States of America

Department of Biology Villanova University Villanova Pennsylvania United States of America

Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington United States of America

Department of Environmental Sciences Makerere University Kampala Uganda

Department of Wildlife Ecology and Wildlife Management University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany

Department of Zoology Nelson Mandela University Port Elizabeth South Africa

Division of Biology and Conservation Ecology School of Science and the Environment Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester United Kingdom

Flora Fauna and Man Ecological Services Ltd Tortola British Virgin Islands

Florida Museum of Natural History University of Florida Gainesville Florida United States of America

Independent Researcher Berlin Germany

Independent Researcher Dříteč Czech Republic

Institut National de Recherche en Sciences Exactes et Naturelles Brazzaville Republic of Congo

Institut Supérieur d'Écologie pour la Conservation de la Nature Katana Campus South Kivu Democratic Republic of the Congo

Laboratoire d'Herpétologie Département de Biologie Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles Lwiro South Kivu Democratic Republic of the Congo

Laboratoire de Paludologie et Zoologie Médicale Institut de Recherche pour le Développement Dakar Senegal

Museo di Storia naturale del Salento Calimera Italy

Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science Berlin Germany

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Sorbonne Universités Département Systématique et Evolution Paris France

Port Elizabeth Museum Humewood South Africa

School of Natural Resource Management George Campus Nelson Mandela University George South Africa

Erratum In

PLoS One. 2019 May 13;14(5):e0217035. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217035. PubMed

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Are vipers prototypic fear-evoking snakes? A cross-cultural comparison of Somalis and Czechs