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Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia
The reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii, in Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia was investigated over a period of one year. Study of reproductive cycle of male and female C. c. gasperettii revealed that the breeding season is relatively short (April and May). Thereafter...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4423720/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25972758 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2015.01.009 |
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author | Al-Sadoon, M.K. Kandeal, S.A. |
author_facet | Al-Sadoon, M.K. Kandeal, S.A. |
author_sort | Al-Sadoon, M.K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii, in Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia was investigated over a period of one year. Study of reproductive cycle of male and female C. c. gasperettii revealed that the breeding season is relatively short (April and May). Thereafter females laid eggs by mid of July and hatching probably had taken place by the end of September. No activity was observed during winter, this may indicate just a single clutch per year. Relative testis weight to body weight was drastically increased ([Formula: see text] = 0.88%) during the peak of reproductive activity (May) where maximal expansion of seminiferous tubules was also attained during April and May ([Formula: see text] = 209 μm and 191 μm, respectively). Likewise, the ovarian activity was the highest during May where ovarian parameters were greater in terms of relative ovarian weight to body weight and ova diameter being 0.46% and 2.29 mm, respectively. Fat body weight was increased drastically just before the peak of reproductive activity then started to decline during June. It could be concluded that the harsh desert conditions and similar environments certainly affect reproductive activity of Saudi Arabian reptiles including snakes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4423720 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44237202015-05-13 Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia Al-Sadoon, M.K. Kandeal, S.A. Saudi J Biol Sci Original Article The reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii, in Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia was investigated over a period of one year. Study of reproductive cycle of male and female C. c. gasperettii revealed that the breeding season is relatively short (April and May). Thereafter females laid eggs by mid of July and hatching probably had taken place by the end of September. No activity was observed during winter, this may indicate just a single clutch per year. Relative testis weight to body weight was drastically increased ([Formula: see text] = 0.88%) during the peak of reproductive activity (May) where maximal expansion of seminiferous tubules was also attained during April and May ([Formula: see text] = 209 μm and 191 μm, respectively). Likewise, the ovarian activity was the highest during May where ovarian parameters were greater in terms of relative ovarian weight to body weight and ova diameter being 0.46% and 2.29 mm, respectively. Fat body weight was increased drastically just before the peak of reproductive activity then started to decline during June. It could be concluded that the harsh desert conditions and similar environments certainly affect reproductive activity of Saudi Arabian reptiles including snakes. Elsevier 2015-05 2015-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4423720/ /pubmed/25972758 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2015.01.009 Text en © 2015 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Original Article Al-Sadoon, M.K. Kandeal, S.A. Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia |
title | Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia |
title_full | Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia |
title_fullStr | Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia |
title_full_unstemmed | Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia |
title_short | Reproductive biology of the horned viper, Cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of Saudi Arabia |
title_sort | reproductive biology of the horned viper, cerastes cerastes gasperettii in the central region of saudi arabia |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4423720/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25972758 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2015.01.009 |
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