Centro de Zoología Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina.
Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, (IDEA-CONICET), Córdoba, Argentina.
J Morphol. 2023 Aug;284(8):e21617. doi: 10.1002/jmor.21617.
The skull of vipers is a highly kinetic anatomical structure involved in envenomating and consuming of prey. Morphological knowledge about the viperid skull is based on studies on some groups of species, but information on its variation within the whole family and its functional morphology is still scarce. In this study, we aimed to explore variation in skull morphology among species of the three subfamilies of Viperidae, and test whether that variation correlates with macrohabitat and diet. We performed quantitative analyses of the viperid skull based on broad taxonomic sampling and two methodological approaches: linear and geometric morphometrics. The results of both approaches showed that much of the variation lies in differences of shape and relative size of the premaxilla, the nasals, the frontals, and the parietals. The results indicated that phylogeny and size influence the shape of the skull, but we also found evidence of morphological differentiation between arboreal and terrestrial species and in species with mammal specialist diet. Our findings imply that, besides evolutionary allometry and phylogenetic signal, demands of particular diets coupled with use of certain habitats have in part shaped morphological evolution of the viperid skull.
毒蛇的头骨是一个高度活跃的解剖结构，参与毒液注射和捕食猎物。关于毒蛇头骨的形态学知识是基于对一些物种群体的研究，但关于整个家族内部头骨的变异及其功能形态的信息仍然很少。在这项研究中，我们旨在探索蝰蛇科三个亚科的物种之间头骨形态的变异，并检验这种变异是否与宏观生境和饮食有关。我们基于广泛的分类学采样和两种方法学方法（线性和几何形态测量学）对蝰蛇的头骨进行了定量分析。这两种方法的结果都表明，大部分变异在于前颌骨、鼻骨、额骨和顶骨的形状和相对大小的差异。结果表明，系统发育和大小影响头骨的形状，但我们也发现了树栖和陆生物种之间以及以哺乳动物为食的物种之间形态分化的证据。我们的研究结果表明，除了进化上的异速生长和系统发育信号外，特定饮食的需求以及对特定生境的利用在一定程度上塑造了蝰蛇头骨的形态进化。
