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. 2016 Feb 17;11(2):e0148375.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148375. eCollection 2016.

Are Diet Preferences Associated to Skulls Shape Diversification in Xenodontine Snakes?

Julia Klaczko  1 , Emma Sherratt  2 , Eleonore Z F Setz  1
Affiliations

Are Diet Preferences Associated to Skulls Shape Diversification in Xenodontine Snakes?

Julia Klaczko et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Snakes are a highly successful group of vertebrates, within great diversity in habitat, diet, and morphology. The unique adaptations for the snake skull for ingesting large prey in more primitive macrostomatan snakes have been well documented. However, subsequent diversification in snake cranial shape in relation to dietary specializations has rarely been studied (e.g. piscivory in natricine snakes). Here we examine a large clade of snakes with a broad spectrum of diet preferences to test if diet preferences are correlated to shape variation in snake skulls. Specifically, we studied the Xenodontinae snakes, a speciose clade of South American snakes, which show a broad range of diets including invertebrates, amphibians, snakes, lizards, and small mammals. We characterized the skull morphology of 19 species of xenodontine snakes using geometric morphometric techniques, and used phylogenetic comparative methods to test the association between diet and skull morphology. Using phylogenetic partial least squares analysis (PPLS) we show that skull morphology is highly associated with diet preferences in xenodontine snakes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Example of morphological variation in Xenodontinae snake skulls.
Dorsal view (A) and lateral view (B) of Helicops angulatus UFMT 7818, an eater of fish, lizards, and anurans; Dorsal view (C) and lateral view (D) of Philodryas aestivus IBSP 6771, an eater of mammals and anurans; Dorsal view (E) and lateral view (F) of Phimophis guerini IBSP 66406, an eater of lizards and mammals; Dorsal view (G) and lateral view (H) of Phalotris mertensi ZUEC 486, an eater of elongate vertebrates (caecilians and amphisbaenians).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Cranial landmarks.
Cranial landmarks recorded from South American Xenodontinae snakes. Dorsal view (A), anatomical wire frame of dorsal view (B), lateral view (C), and anatomical wire frame of lateral view (D).
Fig 3
Fig 3. The phylomorphospace of dorsal cranial shape.
(A) Projection of the phylogenetic tree into the dorsal view PC morphospace. (B) Estimated changes in dorsal view shape are shown as deformations from the mean shape along the first and second principal components.
Fig 4
Fig 4. The phylomorphospace of lateral cranial shape.
(A) Projection of the phylogenetic tree into the lateral view PC morphospace. (B) Estimated changes in lateral view shape are shown as deformations from the mean shape along the first and second principal components.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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