Body Size Evolution in Snakes: Evidence from Island Populations
- S. Boback
- Environmental ScienceCopeia
- 1 February 2003
The proportional change in body size of island snakes was bimodal, consistent with a diet alteration hypothesis that suggests that snake body size is principally influenced by prey size and that island snakes encounter prey that are larger or smaller in size compared with those on the mainland.
Phylogeographic and population genetic analyses reveal multiple species of Boa and independent origins of insular dwarfism.
- D. Card, D. Schield, T. Castoe
- BiologyMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
- 1 September 2016
Differential Disease Susceptibilities in Experimentally Reptarenavirus-Infected Boa Constrictors and Ball Pythons
- M. Stenglein, D. Sánchez-Migallón Guzmán, J. Derisi
- Medicine, BiologyJournal of Virology
- 17 May 2017
It is demonstrated that reptarenaviruses cause inclusion body disease (IBD), a serious transmissible disease of snakes, and pythons are more susceptible to IBD than boas and could reflect the possibility that boas are natural hosts of these viruses in the wild.
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR AN OPTIMAL BODY SIZE IN SNAKES
Three statistical patterns of body size in snakes are described, all of which indicate an optimal length of 1.0 m, suggesting that idiosyncratic features of the natural history of ectotherms allow relatively unconstrained distributions ofBody size whereas physiological limitations of endotherms constrain distributions of body sizes to a right skew.
Does Body Size Predict Dates of Species Description among North American and Australian Reptiles and Amphibians
It is found that body size is generally a poor predictor of description date in herpetofaunal taxa, and recently described species could not be distinguished from a random draw from overall species pools.
The effectof body size on cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) survival, recapture probability, andbehavior in an Alabama swamp
- D. Koons, R. Birkhead, S. Boback, Matthew I. Williams, M. Greene
- Biology
- 2009
Cooking and grinding reduces the cost of meat digestion.
- S. Boback, C. L. Cox, B. Ott, R. Carmody, R. Wrangham, S. Secor
- Chemistry, MedicineComparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A…
- 1 November 2007
A developmental staging series for the African house snake, Boaedon (Lamprophis) fuliginosus.
- S. Boback, Eric Dichter, H. Mistry
- BiologyZoology
- 1 February 2012
Snake constriction rapidly induces circulatory arrest in rats
- S. Boback, Katelyn J McCann, Kevin A. Wood, Patrick M. McNeal, E. Blankenship, C. Zwemer
- BiologyJournal of Experimental Biology
- 1 July 2015
Examination of the effect of snake constriction on rat cardiovascular function reveals support for circulatory arrest as the proximate cause of death in constricted prey, in contrast to previous ideas.
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