Détail du projet : ASTRX-2017-003-SAMPAIO
- Titre du projet
- Uropeltid snakes: taxonomy and ecomorphological diversity
- Descriptif du projet
- Uropeltidae (Serpentes: Uropeltoidea) is a family of fossorial (burrowing) snakes. Currently the family comprises eight genera and 54 species, endemic to southern India's Western Ghats region and Sri Lanka. Uropeltidae is a very poorly studied group due, in part, to their secretive habits which makes them less likely to be encountered without special effort. Uropeltids have morphological traits that indicate extreme adaptation to burrowing, which have never been studied in detail. Their heads and skulls are highly modified for headfirst burrowing, hence they are likely an important structure to study adaptation to both the environment and feeding habits. Uropeltid snakes are commonly known as ‘shieldtails' due to their unusual blunt or even obliquely flattened tail covered with heavily keeled scales, and sometimes tipped with spines, though the diversity and function of these structures is little studied and poorly understood. The aim of this project is to understand main patterns of phylogenetic and phenotypic diversity, and understand how this diversity assembled in time and space. We are generating new quantitative phenotypic data for uropeltid skulls and possibly tails. Analysing these data within a phylogenetic framework allows us to study comparative morphological evolution of uropeltids, and identify and understand patterns of radiation, colonisation and diversification.