Article review: Fang shape varies with ontogeny and sex in the venomous elapid snake Pseudonaja affinis
Author’s Name: Silke G. C. Cleuren, Matthew B. Patterson, David P. Hocking, Natalie M. Warburton, and Alistair R. Evans.
Name of the journal: Journal of Morphology.
Citation: Cleuren, S. G., Patterson, M. B., Hocking, D. P., Warburton, N. M., & Evans, A. R. (2022). Fang shape varies with ontogeny and sex in the venomous elapid snake Pseudonaja affinis. Journal of Morphology.
Fangs are important to snakes because they are needed for survival and to be able to hunt. This research answers the question if fangs are different between inexperienced juveniles or sexually mature adults within this species. The article focuses on examining the morphology of fangs between male and female adults and juveniles in the snake Pseudonaja affinis. They focused on tip sharpness in order to determine the force needed to puncture the skin of a mammal. In addition, fang robustness was tested in order to determine how much stress a fang can experience before fracturing.
In the experiment, they collected 40 specimens from the species Pseudonaja affinis. They were divided into three groups: juveniles that feed on small reptiles, sub-adults that feed on middle sized reptiles, and adults that feed on mammals. Two fangs were measured and scanned for each specimen. At the end of the experiment, they found that tip sharpness was significantly different between adults and juveniles. Adults had sharper fangs in contrast to juveniles with no difference between female and male snakes . For fang robustness, there was a significant difference between males and females. Males exhibited slender fangs than did the females. On the other hand, subadults and juveniles seemed to have more robust fangs than adults.
The overall results were that the fang morphology is different throughout their lifetime. They change as the snakes switch from a juvenile to an adult diet, making it easier for them to adapt to their ontogenetic diet later on. This research adds to our understanding of reptiles, in that there is a chance that each snake, especially venomous ones, can exhibit different fang morphology. I believe that this research is interesting because it gave me a different view on fangs and it makes me wonder if there are other species that have similar changes when transitioning from juvenile to adult.
1 comment:
Fascinating article! Did the fang shape change gradually during development or was it a dramatic shift? What about diet? Did the dietary shift happen at the same time and at the same pace as the change in fang shape?
Post a Comment