Heat in evolution's kitchen:: evolutionary perspectives on the functions and origin of the facial pit of pitvipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae)
Heat in evolution's kitchen:: evolutionary perspectives on the functions and origin of the facial pit of pitvipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae)
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.01278
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发表时间：
2004-11-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
LaDuc, TJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Krochmal, AR;Bakken, GS;LaDuc, TJ
蝰蛇（蝰蛇科：Crotalinae）拥有热辐射受体，面部凹陷，使它们能够检测到环境中适度的温度波动。以前人们认为这些器官仅用于帮助捕获猎物，但最近的研究结果表明，西部菱背响尾蛇（Crotalus atrox）使用它们来指导行为温度调节，这表明面部凹陷可能是用于驱动一系列行为的通用器官。为了进一步研究这一点，我们进行了一个系统发育调查蝰蛇的体温调节行为提示的热辐射。我们评估了12种pitviper的这种行为，代表pitviper进化的关键节点和广泛的热环境，以及一种真正的蝰蛇（蝰蛇科：蝰蛇亚科），一个密切相关的蛇亚科，缺乏面部凹陷，但拥有一个假定的热辐射受体。所有的蝰蛇物种都能够依靠它们的面部凹陷来指导体温调节运动，而真正的蝰蛇却不能这样做。我们的研究结果表明，由热辐射提示的体温调节行为是一个普遍的作用，面部凹陷，可能代表了一个祖先的特点在pitvipers。此外，他们建立了行为温度调节作为一个合理的假设，解释了面部凹陷的进化起源。
Pitvipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae) possess thermal radiation receptors, the facial pits, which allow them to detect modest temperature fluctuations within their environments. It was previously thought that these organs were used solely to aid in prey acquisition, but recent findings demonstrated that western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) use them to direct behavioral thermoregulation, suggesting that facial pits might be general purpose organs used to drive a suite of behaviors. To investigate this further, we conducted a phylogenetic survey of viperine thermoregulatory behavior cued by thermal radiation. We assessed this behavior in 12 pitviper species, representing key nodes in the evolution of pitvipers and a broad range of thermal environments, and a single species of true viper (Viperidae: Viperinae), a closely related subfamily of snakes that lack facial pits but possess a putative thermal radiation receptor. All pitviper species were able to rely on their facial pits to direct thermoregulatory movements, while the true viper was unable to do so. Our results suggest that thermoregulatory behavior cued by thermal radiation is a universal role of facial pits and probably represents an ancestral trait among pitvipers. Further, they establish behavioral thermoregulation as a plausible hypothesis explaining the evolutionary origin of the facial pit.