JACKSON, Kate: Evolution of the snake venom-delivery system

Venom-delivery systems are thought to have evolved at least three times among the advanced snakes (Colubroidea). The specifics of how this series of morphological changes took place are poorly understood. Studies of the developmental morphology of venom-delivery systems have the potential to shed new light on this problem, showing how the structure of venom systems develop in embryonic snakes from different groups, in order to gain insight into how such structures evolved. In this study, developmental data, comparative morphological data, and recent systematic studies of colubroid snakes are combined to address the question of how the ophidian venom-delivery system evolved.