Potential Evolutionary Convergence in Trophic Adaptations of Two Booidean Snake Lineages as Evidenced by Skull Morphology

Abstract

Booidean snakes are a diverse and widespread lineage with an intriguing evolutionary and biogeographic history. By means of cranial morphology and osteology, this study investigates the evolutionary convergence in the Neotropical genera Boa and Corallus on the one hand and the Malagasy clade comprising Acrantophis and Sanzinia on the other. We hypothesize that the mostly arboreal Corallus and Sanzinia present larger jaws and longer teeth to keep hold of the prey and resist gravity and torsional forces acting on their skull while hanging from branches, while terrestrial genera such as Acrantophis show thinner jaws with shorter teeth because they can rely on the full length of their coils to immobilize and constrict the prey together with a substrate that supports the whole of their body. Overall, we highlight how booidean snakes can serve as intriguing subjects for the study of contingency, determinism, and opportunity in the evolution of distant lineages both phylogenetically and geographically. We also provide the first complete description of the skull of Boa constrictor.