Whole feeding apparatus 3D landmarks

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Whole feeding apparatus 3D landmarks

Authors

Segall, Marion, Rhoda, Daniel, Polly, P. David, Raxworthy, Christopher

Journal

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Publication Year

2020

Pages

36

Abstract

The kinetic skull is a key innovation that allowed snakes to capture, manipulate, and swallow prey exclusively using their heads using the coordinated movement of 8 bones. Despite these unique feeding behaviors, patterns of evolutionary integration and modularity within the feeding bones of snakes in a phylogenetic framework have yet to be addressed. Here, we use a dataset of 60 µCT scanned skulls and high-density geometric morphometric methods to address the origin and patterns of variation and integration in the feeding bones of aquatic-foraging snakes. By comparing alternate superimposition protocols allowing us to analyze the entire kinetic feeding system simultaneously, we find that the feeding bones are highly integrated, driven predominantly by functional selective pressures. The most supported pattern of modularity contains four modules, each associated with distinct functional roles: the mandible, the palatopterygoid arch, the maxilla, and the suspensorium. Further, the morphological disparity of each bone is not linked to its magnitude of integration, indicating that integration within the feeding system does not strongly constrain morphological evolution, and that adequate biomechanical solutions to a wide range of feeding ecologies and behaviors are readily evolvable within the constraint due to integration in the snake feeding system.

Keywords

Modularity (biology) Skull Biology Evolutionary biology Superimposition Constraint (computer-aided design) Biological evolution Range (aeronautics) Feeding behavior Key (lock) Variation (astronomy) Flexibility (engineering) Phylogenetic tree Adaptation (eye) Computer science

Categories

Academic

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Whole feeding apparatus 3D landmarks