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Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes
Viviparous sea snakes are the most rapidly speciating reptiles known, yet the ecological factors underlying this radiation are poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed dated trees for 75% of sea snake species and quantified body shape (forebody relative to hindbody girth), maximum body length and t...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society Publishing
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882731/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29657807 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172141 |
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author | Sherratt, Emma Rasmussen, Arne R. Sanders, Kate L. |
author_facet | Sherratt, Emma Rasmussen, Arne R. Sanders, Kate L. |
author_sort | Sherratt, Emma |
collection | PubMed |
description | Viviparous sea snakes are the most rapidly speciating reptiles known, yet the ecological factors underlying this radiation are poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed dated trees for 75% of sea snake species and quantified body shape (forebody relative to hindbody girth), maximum body length and trophic diversity to examine how dietary specialization has influenced morphological diversification in this rapid radiation. We show that sea snake body shape and size are strongly correlated with the proportion of burrowing prey in the diet. Specialist predators of burrowing eels have convergently evolved a ‘microcephalic’ morphotype with dramatically reduced forebody relative to hindbody girth and intermediate body length. By comparison, snakes that predominantly feed on burrowing gobies are generally short-bodied and small-headed, but there is no evidence of convergent evolution. The eel specialists also exhibit faster rates of size and shape evolution compared to all other sea snakes, including those that feed on gobies. Our results suggest that trophic specialization to particular burrowing prey (eels) has invoked strong selective pressures that manifest as predictable and rapid morphological changes. Further studies are needed to examine the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying these dramatic morphological changes and assess their role in sea snake speciation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5882731 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | The Royal Society Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58827312018-04-13 Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes Sherratt, Emma Rasmussen, Arne R. Sanders, Kate L. R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Viviparous sea snakes are the most rapidly speciating reptiles known, yet the ecological factors underlying this radiation are poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed dated trees for 75% of sea snake species and quantified body shape (forebody relative to hindbody girth), maximum body length and trophic diversity to examine how dietary specialization has influenced morphological diversification in this rapid radiation. We show that sea snake body shape and size are strongly correlated with the proportion of burrowing prey in the diet. Specialist predators of burrowing eels have convergently evolved a ‘microcephalic’ morphotype with dramatically reduced forebody relative to hindbody girth and intermediate body length. By comparison, snakes that predominantly feed on burrowing gobies are generally short-bodied and small-headed, but there is no evidence of convergent evolution. The eel specialists also exhibit faster rates of size and shape evolution compared to all other sea snakes, including those that feed on gobies. Our results suggest that trophic specialization to particular burrowing prey (eels) has invoked strong selective pressures that manifest as predictable and rapid morphological changes. Further studies are needed to examine the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying these dramatic morphological changes and assess their role in sea snake speciation. The Royal Society Publishing 2018-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5882731/ /pubmed/29657807 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172141 Text en © 2018 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Biology (Whole Organism) Sherratt, Emma Rasmussen, Arne R. Sanders, Kate L. Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
title | Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
title_full | Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
title_fullStr | Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
title_full_unstemmed | Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
title_short | Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
title_sort | trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes |
topic | Biology (Whole Organism) |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882731/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29657807 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172141 |
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