Snakes
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- 1.Snakes are diapsid amniotes, and a typical diapsid amniote has
- A.
No temporal fossae.
- B.
One temporal fossa.
- C.
Two temporal fossae.
- D.
One temporal fenestra.
- E.
Two temporal fenestrae.
- 2.There are either two or three major lineages of snakes, depending on whether colubroideans are nested within alethinophidians or not. Irrespective of clade topology, the three major lineages (including scolecophilians) are each different with respect to limbs and girdles. Specifically, (choose all options that are correct):
- A.
Traces of the pelvic girdle can be found in members of Scolecophilia.
- B.
Some members of Alethinophidia have vestigial hindlimbs.
- C.
All species within Colubroidea have lost all traces of the pelvic girdle.
- D.
No living snake retains any trace of a pelvic girdle.
- E.
No living snake retains any trace of a hindlimb.
- 3.Snakes have a comparatively poor fossil record and the evolutionary origins of Serpentes is uncertain. One hypothesis for snake origins is that Serpentes is derived from Mosasauridae. Mosasaurs are all extinct and so we can’t compare snake and mosasaur DNA, but mosasaurs were close relatives of living monitor lizards. A DNA comparison of snake and lizard DNA (Vidal & Hedges 2004) found that
- A.
Snakes and monitor lizards form a clade to the exclusion of all other lizards.
- B.
Snakes and monitor lizards do not form a clade to the exclusion of all other lizards.
- 4.Snakes have poor vision. To compensate, pit vipers, pythons and some boas have
- A.
Ultraviolet sensitive receptors.
- B.
Blue light sensitive receptors.
- C.
Red light sensitive receptors.
- D.
Infrared sensitive receptors.
- E.
Black light sensitive receptors.
- 5.There are three jaw morphologies with respect to fangs, opisthoglyphous, proteroglyphous and solenoglyphous. The key feature that distinguishes opisthoglyphous fangs is that
- A.
Opisthoglyphous fangs are ‘back grooved’ - posterior maxillary teeth are enlarged and may be solid or with a groove.
- B.
Opisthoglyphous fangs are ‘pipe grooved’ - fangs are hollow like hypodermic needles.
- C.
Opisthoglyphous fangs are ‘front grooved’ – fangs are permanently erect at the front of jaw.
- D.
Only elapid snakes (like cobras) have opisthoglyphous fangs.
- E.
Only non-venomous snakes have opisthoglyphous fangs.
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