TY - JOUR
T1 - Pattern and instability in the evolving premaxilla of boine snakes
AU - Frazzetta, T. H.
N1 - Funding Information:
I am grateful to C. J. Cole, Hyman Marx, and Ernest Williams for permission to examine specimens in the collections under their care. Points of criticism were offered by Karel Liem, Alexa Clemans,Joshua Laerm, Arthur Ghent, Harrison Ambrose III, and Clarice Prange. I also appreciate a very brief discussion with Carl Gans. The work was supported by the National Science Foundations (GB-5831) and by the University of Illinois Research Board.
PY - 1975/3
Y1 - 1975/3
N2 - Morphological evidence indicates that within the snake family Boidae the subfamily Pythoninae is ancestral to the Boinae. The python-boa transition in evolution involves a peculiar rotation of the premaxillary bone. During rotation the ventral process of the premaxilla, the processus palatini, is largely obliterated but reconstituted in later Boinae. There exist indications that the pattern of the processus palatini is less controlled or stable in boine snakes than in pythonines. Pattern instability can be the result of several factors which include relaxed selection for precise form and a disruption in the developmental foundation of the feature which has not fully been reversed. These possible factors, though fundamentally different, need not exclude each other. It is surmised that the pattern instability in boines is related, at least in part, to the disruption of a morphogenetic paradigm affecting premaxillary shape.
AB - Morphological evidence indicates that within the snake family Boidae the subfamily Pythoninae is ancestral to the Boinae. The python-boa transition in evolution involves a peculiar rotation of the premaxillary bone. During rotation the ventral process of the premaxilla, the processus palatini, is largely obliterated but reconstituted in later Boinae. There exist indications that the pattern of the processus palatini is less controlled or stable in boine snakes than in pythonines. Pattern instability can be the result of several factors which include relaxed selection for precise form and a disruption in the developmental foundation of the feature which has not fully been reversed. These possible factors, though fundamentally different, need not exclude each other. It is surmised that the pattern instability in boines is related, at least in part, to the disruption of a morphogenetic paradigm affecting premaxillary shape.
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U2 - 10.1093/icb/15.2.469
DO - 10.1093/icb/15.2.469
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0010249357
VL - 15
SP - 469
EP - 481
JO - Integrative and Comparative Biology
JF - Integrative and Comparative Biology
SN - 0003-1569
IS - 2
ER -