Aquatic and terrestrial locomotor speeds of amphibious sea-snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae) - CNRS - Centre national de la recherche scientifique Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Zoology Année : 2003

Aquatic and terrestrial locomotor speeds of amphibious sea-snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae)

Résumé

Amphibious animalsmay be subject to strong but conflicting selective pressures to enhance locomotor performance both on land and in thewater. Biomechanical models suggest that in snakes, adaptations to swimming (e.g. reduction of ventral plates, flattening of tail) will reduce their ability to move on land. The locomotor speeds of six taxa of amphibious (laticaudid) sea-snakes, plus one entirely marine (hydrophiid) species were measured. Because the relative dependence on aquatic vs terrestrial habitats varies with a laticaudid's species, sex and body size, a previous study predicted that these factors should generate significant variation in locomotor speeds within laticaudids. Measurements of swimming and crawling speeds supported this prediction. Some species were faster than others and, within each species, males were faster than conspecific females. The degree of locomotor superiority of males was greater for terrestrial (>40%) than for aquatic (20%) locomotion. Smaller snakes were faster than larger animals in relative speed (body lengths/s) but slower in absolute terms (m/s). The hydrophiid Emydocephalus annulatus was slow in water as well as on land, perhaps because it eats immobile prey and thus, does not depend on speed for foraging. The diversity of locomotor abilities within laticaudid sea-snakes provides a remarkable opportunity to identify factors that influence evolutionary trade-offs between conflicting evolutionary optima.

Dates et versions

hal-00189786 , version 1 (22-11-2007)

Identifiants

Citer

Richard Shine, Harold G. Cogger, Robert R. Reed, Sohan Shetty, Xavier Bonnet. Aquatic and terrestrial locomotor speeds of amphibious sea-snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae). Journal of Zoology, 2003, 259, pp.261-268. ⟨10.1017/S0952836902003242⟩. ⟨hal-00189786⟩

Collections

CNRS
119 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More