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Behavior and phylogeny: constriction in ancient and modern snakes.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|April 7, 1978
Summary
Snake behavior, specifically coil application patterns, offers insights into evolutionary origins. Primitive snake families likely retained ancestral constriction behaviors, suggesting it was an early innovation.
Area of Science:
- Ethology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Herpetology
Background:
- Comparative behavioral analyses can illuminate the role of ethoecological factors in the evolution of higher taxa.
- Snake prey-capture behaviors, particularly constriction, are of evolutionary interest.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate patterns of coil application in snakes to understand their evolutionary history.
- To determine if behavioral patterns correlate with taxonomic groups and infer ancestral behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of 27 species (13 genera) in the advanced family Colubridae.
- Comparative analysis of 48 species (26 genera) in primitive families: Acrochordidae, Aniliidae, Boidae, and Xenopeltidae.
- Observation and classification of coil application patterns during prey capture.
Main Results:
- Twenty-seven species in the advanced family Colubridae displayed 19 distinct coil application patterns, with 1-2 patterns typically consistent within genera.
- Forty-eight species in primitive families consistently used a single coil application pattern, irrespective of variations in age, size, shape, habitat, and diet.
- This suggests a shared retention of an ancestral behavior pattern from the early Paleocene.
Conclusions:
- Behavioral patterns in primitive snake families indicate the retention of an ancient action pattern, likely originating from a common ancestor.
- Constriction as a prey-killing tactic in snakes is ancient and may represent a key behavioral innovation.
- This behavioral innovation could have influenced the evolution of the unique snake jaw mechanism.
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