Meeting Abstract

10.4  Sunday, Jan. 4  Morphological and Anatomical Correlates to Prey Shape in Snakes HAMPTON, P M; University of Louisiana, Lafayette pmh3227@louisiana.edu

Due to their multiple adaptations used to capture and consume prey snakes have proven to be ideal models for investigating relationships between morphology and feeding ecology. However, most ophidian ecomorphology studies have focused on external or osteological characteristics whereas few studies have investigated soft anatomy. I studied how the soft anatomy and morphology in snakes relates to the shapes of preferred prey. To measure heart position, esophagus and stomach lengths, I dissected snakes that frequently consume elongate prey (Farancia, Lampropeltis and Micrurus) and snakes that consume relatively robust prey (Agkistrodon, Crotalus, Heterodon and Python). I also took measures of gape and dorsal scale counts. When corrected for size, snakes that commonly consume or specialize on elongate prey had comparatively shorter esophagi and longer stomachs than snakes that consume robust prey. The size-corrected position of the heart is more anterior in snakes that eat elongate prey than those that eat robust prey. Elongate prey consumers show a relatively uniform pattern of dorsal scale numbers along the length of the body, whereas robust prey eaters have a slight peak at mid-body followed by a decline in scale number at the posterior end. Finally, gape size was correlated with both stomach length and heart position. These data suggest that snakes can compensate for smaller gapes by consuming longer prey with smaller diameters.