Convergence, divergence, and macroevolutionary constraint as revealed by anatomical network analysis of the squamate skull, with an emphasis on snakes

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Traditionally considered the earliest-diverging group of snakes, scolecophidians are central to major evolutionary paradigms regarding squamate feeding mechanisms and the ecological origins of snakes. However, quantitative analyses of these phenomena remain scarce. Herein, we therefore assess skull modularity in squamates via anatomical network analysis, focusing on the interplay between ‘microstomy’ (small-gaped feeding), fossoriality, and miniaturization in scolecophidians. Our analyses reveal distinctive patterns of jaw connectivity across purported ‘microstomatans’, thus supporting a more complex scenario of jaw evolution than traditionally portrayed. We also find that fossoriality and miniaturization each define a similar region of topospace (i.e., connectivity-based morphospace), with their combined influence imposing further evolutionary constraint on skull architecture. These results ultimately indicate convergence among scolecophidians, refuting widespread perspectives of these snakes as fundamentally plesiomorphic and morphologically homogeneous. This network-based examination of skull modularity—the first of its kind for snakes, and one of the first to analyze squamates—thus provides key insights into macroevolutionary trends among squamates, with particular implications for snake origins and evolution.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer14469
TidsskriftScientific Reports
Vol/bind12
Antal sider26
ISSN2045-2322
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
Funding for this research was provided via an Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship awarded to CRCS, a Canada Graduate Scholarship—Master’s awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to CRCS, and an NSERC Discovery Grant (#23458) to MWC. This work was also performed in part at the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Network (NNCI) and part of Harvard University, which is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF Award No. 1541959. The associated scan time was paid for through funds made available to SE Pierce at Harvard University; we also especially thank SE Pierce and TR Simões for their help in organizing and scanning the specimens housed in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Finally, we thank Drs Diego Rasskin-Gutman and Marion Segall, as well as Dr Vera Weisbecker (editor), whose comments in review greatly improved the methodological and conceptual clarity of this manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

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