Inside the head of snakes: influence of size, phylogeny, and sensory ecology on endocranium morphology

Marion Segall (1, 2) , Raphael Cornette (1) , Arne R Rasmussen (3) , Christopher Raxworthy (2)

1 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité
2 AMNH - American Museum of Natural History [New York, USA] = Musée américain d'histoire naturelle [New York, USA]
3 The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts [Denmark]

Environmental properties, and the behavioral habits of species impact sensory cues available for foraging, predator avoidance and inter/intraspecific communication. Consequently, relationships have been discovered between the sensory ecology and brain morphology in many groups of vertebrates. However, these types of studies have remained scare on snake. Here, we investigate 2 Our results thus demonstrate the value of utilizing endocranial shape as complementary information to size and volume in neurobiological studies.

Mots clés: 3D geometric morphometrics; ecological morphology; allometry; snake endocranium; activity period; foraging habitat

Domaines: Biologie animale

Marion Segall, Raphael Cornette, Arne R Rasmussen, Christopher Raxworthy. Inside the head of snakes: influence of size, phylogeny, and sensory ecology on endocranium morphology. Brain Structure and Function, 2021, ⟨10.1007/s00429-021-02340-6⟩. ⟨hal-03297137⟩