Effects of Size, Condition, Measurer, and Time on Measurements of Snakes

Cundall, David; Deufel, Alexandra; MacGregor, Gylla; Pattishall, Abigail; Richter, Martin

doi:10.1655/herpetologica-d-16-00006

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Length measurements used to calculate gape index were carried out using calipers to the nearest 0.1 mm. Since the accuracy of morphological measurements of snakes (especially head width and SVL) has been questioned recently (Cundall et al , 2016), to reduce the measurement errors, only one person (A. Avci) performed all the measurement, solely on preserved specimens. For the scaling analysis of the gape index, reduced major axis (RMA) regression of the log‐transformed variables ( y ‐axis) against the log‐transformed head length and log‐transformed snout–vent length ( x ‐axis) was computed, which is more robust in preventing spurious correlations which arise from the use of ratios in regression analysis (Rayner, 1985).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body size miniaturization in a lineage of colubrid snakes: Implications for cranial anatomy

et al. 2020

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As body size strongly determines the biology of an organism at all levels (e.g., morphology, physiology, ecology, behavior), it can be expected that miniaturization comes with substantial structural and functional constraints (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1984; Boback and Guyer, 2003; Pyron and Burbrink, 2009). However, the fact that miniaturization evolved many times independently across the animal kingdom indicates that it also comes with benefits, such as improved predator avoidance, exploitation of alternative food resources, utilization of physically smaller niches, and attaining reproductive maturity at an earlier age (Zimkus et al., 2012). This convergent phenomenon is quite common across several clades of reptiles (see Hanken and Wake, 1993). In snakes, for example, dwarfism is well known in

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%