Ecological and phylogenetic influences on maxillary dentition in snakes.docVIP

Phyllomedusa 9(2):121-131, 2010 ? 2010 Departamento de Ciências Biológicas - ESALQ - USP ISSN 1519-1397 Ecological and phylogenetic in?uences on maxillary dentition in snakes Andrew Knox and Kate Jackson Department of Biology, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington 99362, USA. E?mail: jacksok@whitman.edu. Abstract Ecological and phylogenetic in?uences on maxillary dentition in snakes. The maxillary dentition of snakes was used as a system with which to investigate the relative importance of the interacting forces of ecological selective pressures and phylogenetic constraints in determining morphology. The maxillary morphology of three groups of snakes having different diets, with each group comprising two distinct lineages—boids and colubroids— was examined. Our results suggest that dietary selective pressures may be more signi?cant than phylogenetic history in shaping maxillary morphology. Keywords: Serpentes, dentition, diet, ecology, evolution, morphology. Resumo In?uências ecológicas e ?logenéticas sobre a denti??o maxilar das serpentes. Usamos a denti??o maxilar das serpentes como um sistema para investigar a importancia relativa das press?es seletivas ecológicas e das restri??es ?logenéticas na determina??o da morfologia. Examinamos a morfologia maxilar de três grupos de serpentes com diferentes dietas, com cada grupo compreendendo duas linhagens distintas—Boidae e Colubroidea. Nossos resultados sugerem que as press?es seletivas relacionadas à dieta podem ser mais signi?cativas que a história ?logenética na conforma??o da morfologia maxilar. Keywords: Serpentes, denti??o, dieta, ecologia, evolu??o, morfologia. Introduction and that dentitional morphology would be correlated with the type of prey favored by Morphology is controlled by the interaction different species. Phylogeny constrains the of phylogeny and selective pressure (Losos and Miles 1994). We hyp