Study of the ethmoidal region of Liophis jaegeri jaegeri, Philodryas olfersii and Thamnodynastes strigatus, by three-dimensional volumetric reconstruction and morphological adaptations to the habitat

Abstract

The Neotropical region shows an extremely diverse snake fauna. These animals present great morphological and ecological variation in relation to the microhabitat analyzed. Nevertheless, few studies can qualify the use of skull development in the relation between animal and habitat. The results of such studies can contribute to about the research on adaptation to the habitat use and morphology. This work aims to reconstruct a threedimensional virtual model through histological sections of Liophis jaegeri jaegeri’s, Philodryas olfersii’s and Thamnodynastes strigatus’s ethmoidal region, to contribute to the knowledge of colubrids’ ontogeny, and to describe comparatively the ethmoidal region of the skull of these three species trying to elucidate aspects of its development in response to selection for adaptive features to the habitat. The material was obtained from the herpetological scientific collection of the Natural Sciences Zoobotanic Foundation of Rio Grande do Sul . To the reconstruction of the three-dimensional models of the ethmoidal region were used 15 sections of the snake Liophis jaegeri jaegeri, 22 sections of Philodryas olfersii and 21 sections of Thamnodynastes strigatus. The identified modifications in the examined ethmoidal region in relation to the environment occur mainly in the narial fenestra, nasal vestibule and nasal cavity.

Key words: histology of the ethmoidal region, virtual models, snakes, habitats.