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101 results for “snake evolution”
Data from: Phylogenetic inference and divergence dating of snakes using molecules, morphology and fossils: new insights into convergent evolution of feeding morphology and limb reduction
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Data from: Diversification rates and phenotypic evolution in venomous snakes (Elapidae)
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Ecological and biogeographic processes drive the proteome evolution of snake venom
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Data from: Human-mediated evolution in a threatened species? Juvenile life-history changes in Snake River salmon
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Data from: Snake and bird predation drive the repeated convergent evolution of correlated life history traits and phenotype in the Izu Island scincid lizard (Plestiodon latiscutatus)
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Data from: What makes a fang? phylogenetic and ecological controls on tooth evolution in rear-fanged snakes
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Data from: Has snake fang evolution lost its bite? New insights from a structural mechanics viewpoint
Venomous snakes—the pinnacle of snake evolution—are characterized by their possession of venom-conducting fangs ranging from grooved phenotypes characterizing multiple lineages of rear-fanged taxa to tubular phenotypes present in elapids, viperids and atractaspidines. Despite extensive research, controversy still exists on the selective pressures involved in fang phenotype diversification. Here, we test the hypothesis that larger fangs and consequently a shift to an anterior position in the maxilla evolved to compensate for the costs of structural changes, i.e. higher stress upon impact in tubular fangs compared to grooved fangs. Direct voxel-based stress simulations conducted on high-resolution µCT scans, analysed within a phylogenetic framework, showed no differences in stress distribution between the three fang phenotypes, despite differences in (relative) fang length. These findings suggest that additional compensatory mechanisms are responsible for the biomechanical optimization and that fang length might instead be related to differential striking behaviour strategies.
Data from: Evolution of extreme ontogenetic allometric diversity and heterochrony in pythons, a clade of giant and dwarf snakes
Ontogenetic allometry, how species change with size through their lives, and heterochony, a decoupling between shape, size and age, are major contributors to biological diversity. However, macro-evolutionary allometric and heterochronic trends remain poorly understood because previous studies have focused on small groups of closely related species. Here we focus on testing hypotheses about the evolution of allometry and how allometry and heterochrony drive morphological diversification at the level of an entire species-rich and diverse clade. Pythons are a useful system due to their remarkably diverse and well-adapted phenotypes and extreme size disparity. We collected detailed phenotype data on 40 of the 44 species of python from 1,191 specimens. We used a suite of analyses to test for shifts in trajectories that modify morphological diversity. Heterochrony is the main driver of initial divergence within python clades, and shifts in the slopes of allometric trajectories make exploration of novel phenotypes possible later in divergence history. We found that allometric coefficients are highly evolvable and there is an association between ontogenetic allometry and ecology, suggesting that allometry is both labile and adaptive rather than a constraint on possible phenotypes.
Data from: Cranial ontogeny of Thamnophis radix (Serpentes: Colubroidea) with a re-evaluation of current paradigms of snake skull evolution
Accurate knowledge of skeletal ontogeny in extant organisms is crucial in understanding important morpho-functional systems and in enabling inferences of the ontogenetic stage of fossil specimens. However, detailed knowledge of skeletal ontogeny is lacking for most squamates, including snakes. Very few studies have discussed postnatal development in snakes, with none incorporating data from all three major ontogenetic stages – embryonic, juvenile, and adult. Here, we provide the first analysis encompassing these three ontogenetic stages for any squamate, using the first complete micro-computed tomography (micro-CT)-based segmentations of any non-adult snake, based on fresh specimens of Thamnophis radix. The most significant changes involve the feeding apparatus, with major elongation of the tooth-bearing elements and jaw suspensorium causing a posterior shift in the jaw articulation. This shift enables macrostomy (large-gaped feeding in snakes) and occurs in T. radix via a different developmental trajectory than in most other macrostomatans, indicating that the evolution of macrostomy is more complex than previously thought. The braincase of T. radix is also evolutionarily unique among derived snakes in lacking a crista circumfenestralis, a phenomenon considered herein to represent paedomorphic retention of the embryonic condition. We thus present a number of important challenges to current paradigms regarding snake cranial evolution.
Data from: Does aquatic foraging impact head shape evolution in snakes?
Evolutionary trajectories are often biased by developmental and historical factors. However, environmental factors can also impose constraints on the evolutionary trajectories of organisms leading to convergence of morphology in similar ecological contexts. The physical properties of water impose strong constraints on aquatic feeding animals by generating pressure waves that can alert prey and potentially push them away from the mouth. These hydrodynamic constraints have resulted in the independent evolution of suction feeding in most groups of secondarily aquatic tetrapods. Despite the fact that snakes cannot use suction they have invaded the aquatic milieu many times independently. Here we test whether the aquatic environment has constrained head shape evolution in snakes and whether shape converges on that predicted by biomechanical models. To do so, we used 3D geometric morphometrics and comparative, phylogenetically informed analyses on a large sample of aquatic snake species. Our results show that aquatic snakes partially conform to our predictions and have a narrower anterior part of the head and dorsally positioned eyes and nostrils. This morphology is observed irrespective of the phylogenetic relationships among species suggesting that the aquatic environment does indeed drive the evolution of head shape in snakes, thus biasing the evolutionary trajectory of this group of animals.
Data from: Evolution of the snake body form reveals homoplasy in amniote Hox gene function
Hox genes regulate regionalization of the axial skeleton in vertebrates, and changes in their expression have been proposed to be a fundamental mechanism driving the evolution of new body forms. The origin of the snake-like body form, with its deregionalized pre-cloacal axial skeleton, has been explained as either homogenization of Hox gene expression domains9, or retention of standard vertebrate Hox domains with alteration of downstream expression that suppresses development of distinct regions. Both models assume a highly regionalized ancestor, but the extent of deregionalization of the primaxial domain (vertebrae, dorsal ribs) of the skeleton in snake-like body forms has never been analysed. Here we combine geometric morphometrics and maximum-likelihood analysis to show that the pre-cloacal primaxial domain of elongate, limb-reduced lizards and snakes is not deregionalized compared with limbed taxa, and that the phylogenetic structure of primaxial morphology in reptiles does not support a loss of regionalization in the evolution of snakes. We demonstrate that morphometric regional boundaries correspond to mapped gene expression domains in snakes, suggesting that their primaxial domain is patterned by a normally functional Hox code. Comparison of primaxial osteology in fossil and modern amniotes with Hox gene distributions within Amniota indicates that a functional, sequentially expressed Hox code patterned a subtle morphological gradient along the anterior–posterior axis in stem members of amniote clades and extant lizards, including snakes. The highly regionalized skeletons of extant archosaurs and mammals result from independent evolution in the Hox code and do not represent ancestral conditions for clades with snake-like body forms. The developmental origin of snakes is best explained by decoupling of the primaxial and abaxial domains and by increases in somite number, not by changes in the function of primaxial Hox genes.
Figure 6 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 6 Type locality of Atractaspisbranchi sp. n. in north-western Liberia. The holotype specimen was found at night. It was moving along the steep slope on the left bank of the small creek.
Figure 5 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 5 Dorsal (a), lateral (b) and ventral (c) views (lower jaw removed virtually, green: pterygoid, yellow: palatine, orange: vomer) of the skulls of 1Atractaspisreticulata (NRM 1796, holotype); 2Atractaspisreticulata (ZMB 28500); 3Atractaspisaterrima (ZMB 8016); and 4Atractaspisboulengerimatschiensis (ZMB 11040). Scale bar: 1 mm.
Figure 4 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 4 Paratype of Atractaspisbranchi sp. n. (MSNS Rept 280) 1 head scalation in dorsal (a), lateral (b), and ventral (c) views; 2 ct-scan of skull in dorsal (a), lateral (b), and ventral (c) views; lower jaw virtually removed; green: pterygoid, yellow: palatine, orange: vomer. Scale bar: 1 mm.
Figure 2 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 2 Atractaspisbranchi sp. n. paratype (MSNS Rept 280) and head and anterior part of body of a further, not yet accessioned specimen (field number 9314X) from south-eastern Guinea.
Figure 8 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 8 Dorsal (a), lateral (b) and ventral (c) views of the head Atractaspisreticulata (NRM 1796, holotype); dorsal (d) and ventral (e) views of the entire snake.
Figure 7 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 7 Localities of Atractaspisbranchi sp. n. and A.reticulata ssp. Records are based on museum specimens, literature and database (GBIF) records; large closed symbols represent the type localities of the different taxa, stars: A.branchi sp. n., circles: A.reticulata records without reference to subspecies; triangles: A.r.reticulata; quadrats: A.r.heterochilus; diamonds: A.r.brieni; country borders indicted as white lines; background of map: major biomes based on Olson et al. (2001).
Figure 3 from: Rödel M, Kucharzewski C, Mahlow K, Chirio L, Pauwels OSG, Carlino P, Sambolah G, Glos J (2019) A new stiletto snake (Lamprophiidae, Atractaspidinae, Atractaspis) from Liberia and Guinea, West Africa. Zoosystematics and Evolution 95(1): 107-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.95.31488
Figure 3 Holotype of Atractaspisbranchi sp. n. (ZMB 88529) 1 head scalation in dorsal (a), lateral (b), and ventral (c) views 2 ct-scan of skull in dorsal (a), lateral (b), and ventral (c) views; lower jaw virtually removed; green: pterygoid, yellow: palatine, orange: vomer. Scale bar: 1 mm.
FIG. 9 in Snakes from Griesbeckerzell (Langhian, Early Badenian), North Alpine Foreland Basin (Germany), with comments on the evolution of snake faunas in Central Europe during the Miocene Climatic Optimum
FIG. 9.— "Coluber" sp. from the Middle Miocene (MN 6, base) of Griesbeckerzell 1a; middle trunk vertebra (BSPG 1997 XIII 551) in lateral (l), dorsal (d), ventral (v), and cranial (cr) views. Abbreviations: see Figures 4 & 7. Scale bar: 2 mm.
Figure 5 in The evolution of venom-delivery systems in snakes
Figure 5. Head muscles of (A) Python regius (modified from Phisalix, 1922), showing an unspecialized pattern of external adductor muscles; (B) the viperid, Vipera aspis (modified from Phisalix, 1922); (C) the elapid, Elapsoidea sundevalli (modified from McDowell, 1968), and (D) the atractaspidid, Atractaspis dahomeyensis (modified from Underwood & Kochva, 1993). The adductor externus muscles are shown in colour: red, AES and derived fibres; yellow, AEM and derived fibres; blue, AEP and derived fibres. Snakes not drawn to the same scale.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
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