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Daza JD, Krakoski EC, Gamble T, Bauer AM. Hyperdontia in the Paraguayan Martha's marked gecko (Homonota marthae: Phyllodactylidae: Squamata). Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2023; 306:692-695. [PMID: 36102792 DOI: 10.1002/ar.25077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Juan D Daza
- Department of Biological Sciences, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA
| | - Emma C Krakoski
- Department of Biological Sciences, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA
| | - Tony Gamble
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.,Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.,Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, USA
| | - Aaron M Bauer
- Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA
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Convergence, divergence, and macroevolutionary constraint as revealed by anatomical network analysis of the squamate skull, with an emphasis on snakes. Sci Rep 2022; 12:14469. [PMID: 36008512 PMCID: PMC9411180 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18649-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 08/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Traditionally considered the earliest-diverging group of snakes, scolecophidians are central to major evolutionary paradigms regarding squamate feeding mechanisms and the ecological origins of snakes. However, quantitative analyses of these phenomena remain scarce. Herein, we therefore assess skull modularity in squamates via anatomical network analysis, focusing on the interplay between ‘microstomy’ (small-gaped feeding), fossoriality, and miniaturization in scolecophidians. Our analyses reveal distinctive patterns of jaw connectivity across purported ‘microstomatans’, thus supporting a more complex scenario of jaw evolution than traditionally portrayed. We also find that fossoriality and miniaturization each define a similar region of topospace (i.e., connectivity-based morphospace), with their combined influence imposing further evolutionary constraint on skull architecture. These results ultimately indicate convergence among scolecophidians, refuting widespread perspectives of these snakes as fundamentally plesiomorphic and morphologically homogeneous. This network-based examination of skull modularity—the first of its kind for snakes, and one of the first to analyze squamates—thus provides key insights into macroevolutionary trends among squamates, with particular implications for snake origins and evolution.
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Chuliver M, Scanferla A, Koch C. Ontogeny of the skull of the blind snake Amerotyphlops brongersmianus (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) brings new insights on snake cranial evolution. Zool J Linn Soc 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Blind snakes represent the most basal group of extant snakes and include fossorial species with unusual skeletal traits. Despite their known phylogenetic position, little is known about their ontogeny and what it might reveal about the origin of their skull anatomy. Here we describe for the first time the ontogenetic transformations of the skull of a blind snake, the typhlopid Amerotyphlops brongersmianus, including embryos and postnatal individuals. Furthermore, we provide data on the size changes relative to skull growth of the main elements of the gnathic complex. We observed that the skull of this blind snake undergoes considerable morphological change during late ontogeny. Additionally, we detected delayed development of some traits (closure of the skull roof, opisthotic-exoccipital suture, ossification of the posterior trabeculae) simultaneously with clearly peramorphic traits (development of the crista circumfenestralis, growth of the pterygoid bar). Our analysis suggests that the unique skull anatomy of blind snakes displays plesiomorphic and highly autapomorphic features, as an outcome of heterochronic processes and miniaturization, and is shaped by functional constraints related to a highly specialized feeding mechanism under the selective pressures of a fossorial lifestyle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariana Chuliver
- CONICET - Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’ , Hidalgo 775, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires C1405BCK , Argentina
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change , Adenauerallee 127, Bonn 53113 , Germany
| | - Agustín Scanferla
- CONICET - Fundación de Historia Natural ‘Félix de Azara’ , Hidalgo 775, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires C1405BCK , Argentina
| | - Claudia Koch
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change , Adenauerallee 127, Bonn 53113 , Germany
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Herrel A, Lowie A, Miralles A, Gaucher P, Kley NJ, Measey J, Tolley KA. Burrowing in blindsnakes: A preliminary analysis of burrowing forces and consequences for the evolution of morphology. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2021; 304:2292-2302. [PMID: 34089306 DOI: 10.1002/ar.24686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 04/18/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Burrowing is a common behavior in vertebrates. An underground life-style offers many advantages but also poses important challenges including the high energetic cost of burrowing. Scolecophidians are a group of morphologically derived subterranean snakes that show great diversity in form and function. Although it has been suggested that leptotyphlopids and anomalepidids mostly use existing underground passageways, typhlopids are thought to create their own burrows. However, the mechanisms used to create burrows and the associated forces that animals may be able to generate remain unknown. Here, we provide the first data on push forces in scolecophidians and compare them with those in some burrowing alethinophidian snakes. Our results show that typhlopids are capable of generating higher forces for a given size than other snakes. The observed differences are not due to variation in body diameter or length, suggesting fundamental differences in the mechanics of burrowing or the way in which axial muscles are used. Qualitative observations of skull and vertebral shape suggest that the higher forces exerted by typhlopids may have impacted the evolution of their anatomy. Our results provide the basis for future studies exploring the diversity of form and function in this fascinating group of animals. Quantitative comparisons of the cranial and vertebral shape in addition to collecting functional and ecological data on a wider array of species would be particularly important to test the patterns described here.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony Herrel
- Département Adaptations du Vivant, UMR 7179 C.N.R.S/M.N.H.N, Bâtiment d'Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France.,Department of Biology, Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Aurélien Lowie
- Department of Biology, Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Aurélien Miralles
- Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, Université des Antilles, Paris, France
| | - Philippe Gaucher
- Laboratoire Ecologie, Evolution, Interactions des Systèmes amazoniens Centre de Recherche de Montabo, Cayenne cédex, France
| | - Nathan J Kley
- Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
| | - John Measey
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Center for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
| | - Krystal A Tolley
- Kirstenbosch Research Center, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Cape Town, South Africa.,School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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