Comparative anatomy and homology of jaw adductor muscles of some South Asian colubroid snakes (Serpentes: Colubroidea)

Title: Comparative anatomy and homology of jaw adductor muscles of some South Asian colubroid snakes (Serpentes: Colubroidea)

Creators: Sunandan Das, Kousik Pramanick

Submitted June 26, 2018.
Accepted January 2, 2019.
Published online at www.senckenberg.de/vertebrate-zoology on February 15, 2019.
Published in print on February 27, 2019.

DOI: 10.26049/VZ69-1-2019-04
PDF/A 2.7MB

Published by Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

Date (Publication Year): 2019

Resource Type (General): TEXT

Resource Type (optional): Vertebrate Zoology, Scientific Article

Description: We studied jaw adductor muscles in eighteen species of South Asian colubroid snakes and presented a comparative account of their anatomy. The deepest layer of external adductor appears to be a composite of aductor mandibulae externus medialis and profundus fibres and caenophidians are characterized by an attenuation of the former muscle which may be correlated with the development of a derived type of mandible. Our observations further suggest that, though highly reduced, fibres homologous to adductor mandibulae externus medialis may be present in at least some colubroids with a bodenaponeurosis. Some hitherto unreported features pertaining to levator anguli oris and pterygomandibularis of some studied elapid, colubrine colubrid and ahaetuliine colubrid genera are also described.

Keywords: Jaw adductor, snakes, Colubroidea, anatomy, musculature, adductor mandibulae externus, adductor internus, adductor posterior, levator anguli oris, pterygomandibularis.

Citation: Das, S., Pramanick, K. (2019). Comparative anatomy and homology of jaw adductor muscles of some South Asian colubroid snakes (Serpentes: Colubroidea). Vertebrate Zoology, 69(1): 93-102. https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-1-2019-04