Apodora

Genus Apodora Kluge, 1993

Remarks:

Kluge (1993) established this monotypic genus for the species papuana, which until then was included in the genus Liasis Gray as Liasis papuanus . Because of the lack of clarity concerning the phylogenetic position of this taxon ( Liasis, Apodora ( Morelia, Python)) (see Kluge 1993: fig. 28), Kluge (1993: 53) characterized it with the term "sedis mutabilis" (of changing phylogenetic position, sensu Wiley, 1981, convention 4). However, recent researchers found some of the anatomical and morphological characters used in previous phylogenetic studies unsuitable due to misidentification (e.g., Scanlon 2001) or homoplasy (e.g., Wilcox et al. 2002, for detailed discussion see Rawlings et al. 2008). Scanlon (2001) analyzed a modified version of the dataset used by Kluge (1993) and found the genus Liasis to be paraphyletic (see Scanlon 2001: fig. 26). Later Rawlings et al. (2004) placed Apodora papuana as the sister clade to all other species of Liasis, which supports the separation of Apodora papuana as proposed by Kluge (1993), but this position was not well supported by their data. More recently, Rawlings et al. (2008) indicated a relationship between Apodora papuana and Liasis olivaceus within the monophyletic genus Liasis, both taxa forming a sister clade to the Liasis fuscus /mackloti complex, but again this position was not well supported. Hence, in anticipation of more robust data, we retain the current placement of this genus.