As the crested newts radiated in a short temporal interval, a relatively long time ago, it has proven extremely difficult to resolve their phylogenetic relationships. This might mean they truly did split simultaneously, or the amount of data studies may not have been sufficient. In a paper in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution we take another attempt to resolve the crested newt phylogeny. This time around we use sequence data for several nuclear and mitochondrial genes. I don’t think it actually got us much closer to a resolved phylogeny!

Reference: Esprequeira Themudo, G., Wielstra, B., Arntzen, J.W. (2009). Multiple nuclear and mitochondrial genes resolve the branching order of a rapid radiation of crested newts (Triturus, Salamandridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52(2): 321-328.