Diversification of North American natricine snakes
نویسندگان
چکیده
JOHN D. MCVAY*, OSCAR FLORES-VILLELA and BRYAN CARSTENS Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA Facultad de Ciencias, Museo de Zoologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Circuito Extrior de CU, Mexico, DF, 04510, Mexico Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 318 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210-1293, USA
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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 sn...
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