Title |
Consuming viscous prey: a novel protein-secreting delivery system in neotropical snail-eating snakes
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Published in |
BMC Ecology and Evolution, March 2014
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DOI | 10.1186/1471-2148-14-58 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Hussam Zaher, Leonardo de Oliveira, Felipe G Grazziotin, Michelle Campagner, Carlos Jared, Marta M Antoniazzi, Ana L Prudente |
Abstract |
Efficient venom delivery systems are known to occur only in varanoid lizards and advanced colubroidean snakes among squamate reptiles. Although components of these venomous systems might have been present in a common ancestor, the two lineages independently evolved strikingly different venom gland systems. In snakes, venom is produced exclusively by serous glands in the upper jaw. Within the colubroidean radiation, lower jaw seromucous infralabial glands are known only in two distinct lineages-the basal pareatids and the more advanced Neotropical dipsadines known as "goo-eating snakes". Goo-eaters are a highly diversified, ecologically specialized clade that feeds exclusively on invertebrates (e.g., gastropod molluscs and annelids). Their evolutionary success has been attributed to their peculiar feeding strategies, which remain surprisingly poorly understood. More specifically, it has long been thought that the more derived Dipsadini genera Dipsas and Sibynomorphus use glandular toxins secreted by their infralabial glands to extract snails from their shells. |
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