OPUS: Serpentine Perspectives on the Evolution of Predator-prey Relationships

蛇是一种主要的脊椎动物辐射，有3,400多个物种在所有主要的非极地陆地上占据不同的栖息地。不寻常的进食适应，使这些动物在一顿饭中消耗超过100%的体重，这对产生蛇的生物多样性至关重要。蛇可以迅速增加它们的消化道和心脏的大小，并进化出可注射的毒液来消化和消化它们的猎物，但是我们甚至缺乏对许多广泛的常见物种的饮食的详细分析。该项目将收集和综合八个主要谱系中66个物种的约7500个饮食记录，然后分析每个物种饮食的季节性，大小相关和地理变化。然后，统计比较将被用来推断物种之间的进化和生态饮食模式，以及探索潜在的生物医学和保护的影响。分析结果将综合成一本学术著作《捕食者-猎物关系：一种捕食者的观点》，提交给一所大学出版社。这些数据将提供给研究人员和公众，以促进对蛇的进化生态学和捕食者-猎物关系的进一步研究。这些数据的整理和综合将为研究界创造宝贵的资源，并有可能扩大对捕食者-被捕食者在空间和时间上的关系的科学知识。发表的综合报告和数据都将作为基准，在全球气候变化、物种范围变化和规划管理制度的背景下，可以据此理解蛇的饮食。这本书和存档的数据不仅会引起进化生态学家和自然资源保护主义者的兴趣，而且会引起动物园管理员、爬虫养殖学家和感兴趣的非专业自然学家的兴趣。该项目将有助于培训两名本科生，并将包括调查员的公共外联介绍。

Snakes represent a major vertebrate radiation, with more than 3,400 species occupying diverse habitats on all major non-polar landmasses. Unusual feeding adaptations that allow these animals to consume over 100% of their body weight in a single meal have been critical in generating snake biodiversity. Snakes can rapidly increase the size of their digestive tracts and hearts, and have evolved injectable venoms that immobilize and digest their prey, however we lack detailed analyses of diet for even many widespread, common species. This project will gather and synthesize ~7500 diet records on 66 species in eight major lineages, and then analyze seasonal, size-related, and geographic variation in each species' diet. Statistical comparisons will then be used to infer evolutionary and ecological diet patterns among species, as well as to explore potential biomedical and conservation implications. The analysis will lead to a synthesis in a scholarly volume, Predator-prey Relationships: a Serpentine Perspective, to be submitted to a university press. The data will be made available to researchers and the general public to stimulate further research on the evolutionary ecology of snakes and predator-prey relationships. The organization and synthesis of these data will create valuable resources for the research community and will have the potential to expand scientific knowledge of predator-prey relationships over space and time. Both the published synthesis and the data will serve as benchmarks against which snake diets can be understood in the context of global climate change, shifts in species ranges, and planning management regimes. The book and archived data will be of interest not only to evolutionary ecologists and conservationists, but also to zookeepers, herpetoculturists, and interested lay naturalists. This project will contribute to the training of two undergraduates and will include public outreach presentations by the investigator.