Pitviper Scavenging at the Intertidal Zone: An Evolutionary Scenario for Invasion of the Sea

Lillywhite, Harvey B.; Sheehy, Coleman M.; Zaidan, Frederic

doi:10.1641/b581008

Cited by 38 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The characters we studied also reflect a progression of responses to stages of the terrestrial-tomarine transition represented by the three species of sea kraits H. B. Lillywhite and others ( Lillywhite et al, 2008b). Insofar as fresh drinking water is a requirement for water balance in these marine snakes (Lillywhite et al, 2008a), properties of skin that conserve water are expected to be an important feature in the suite of characters that assist the organisms in maintaining water balance in potentially very stressful environments.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Water exchange and permeability properties of the skin in three species of amphibious sea snakes (Laticauda spp.)

Lillywhite

Menon

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYEvolutionary transitions between different environmental media such as air and water pose special problems with respect to skin permeability because of the dramatic changes in the driving gradients and nature of water exchange processes. Also, during the transitional periods prior to complete adaptation to a new medium, the skin is exposed to two very different sets of environmental conditions. Here, we report new data for transepidermal evaporative water loss (TEWL) and cutaneous resistance to evaporative water loss (R s ) of sea snakes that are transitional in the sense of being amphibious and semi-terrestrial. We investigated three species of sea kraits (Elapidae: Laticaudinae) that are common to Orchid Island (Lanyu), Taiwan. Generally, R s of all three species is lower than that characteristic of terrestrial/xeric species of snakes measured in other taxa. Within Laticauda, R s is significantly greater (TEWL lower) in the more terrestrial species and lowest (TEWL highest) in the more aquatic species. Previously reported losses of water from snakes kept in seawater exhibit a reversed trend, with lower rates of loss in the more aquatic species. These data suggest selection for adaptive traits with respect to increasing exposure to the marine environment. Thus, a countergradient of traits is reflected in decreased TEWL in aerial environments and decreased net water efflux in marine environments, acting simultaneously in the three species. The pattern for TEWL correlates with ultrastructural evidence for increased lipogenesis in the stratum corneum of the more terrestrial species. The skin surfaces of all three species are hydrophobic. Species differences in this property possibly explain the pattern for water efflux when these snakes are in seawater, which remains to be investigated.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Water exchange and permeability properties of the skin in three species of amphibious sea snakes (Laticauda spp.)

Lillywhite

Menon

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Our record of a large carnivorous lizard (lace monitor, Varanus varius ) being attracted to fish carrion is interesting because there are few published records of terrestrial reptiles scavenging on beaches (but see 79,80). Yet lace monitors are known to occur in coastal dunes and on beaches, especially near camp grounds where they feed on food scraps (Schlacher pers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Donor-Control of Scavenging Food Webs at the Land-Ocean Interface

et al. 2013

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Food webs near the interface of adjacent ecosystems are potentially subsidised by the flux of organic matter across system boundaries. Such subsidies, including carrion of marine provenance, are predicted to be instrumental on open-coast sandy shores where in situ productivity is low and boundaries are long and highly permeable to imports from the sea. We tested the effect of carrion supply on the structure of consumer dynamics in a beach-dune system using broad-scale, repeated additions of carcasses at the strandline of an exposed beach in eastern Australia. Carrion inputs increased the abundance of large invertebrate scavengers (ghost crabs, Ocypode spp.), a numerical response most strongly expressed by the largest size-class in the population, and likely due to aggregative behaviour in the short term. Consumption of carrion at the beach-dune interface was rapid and efficient, driven overwhelmingly by facultative avian scavengers. This guild of vertebrate scavengers comprises several species of birds of prey (sea eagles, kites), crows and gulls, which reacted strongly to concentrations of fish carrion, creating hotspots of intense scavenging activity along the shoreline. Detection of carrion effects at several trophic levels suggests that feeding links arising from carcasses shape the architecture and dynamics of food webs at the land-ocean interface.

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“…While it is tempting to associate the proliferation of Hydrophiini with ecological release into marine habitats (e.g. Lillywhite et al. , 2008), the observation that most basal branching lineages of Hydrophiini are low‐diversity suggests that marine habits alone do not provide a general explanation for high species‐richness in Hydrophiini.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The high species diversity of Hydrophiini has sometimes been associated with colonization of a novel habitat (e.g. Dunson, 1975;Lillywhite et al, 2008); however, it is notable that none of the earliest branching lineages of Hydrophiini are especially diverse. Rather, the high species richness in the clade is accounted for by a single nested subgroup, the Hydrophis group (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncoupling ecological innovation and speciation in sea snakes (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae, Hydrophiini)

Sanders

Mumpuni

Lee

2010

J of Evolutionary Biology

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The viviparous sea snakes (Hydrophiini) are by far the most successful living marine reptiles, with ∼60 species that comprise a prominent component of shallow‐water marine ecosystems throughout the Indo‐West Pacific. Phylogenetically nested within the ∼100 species of terrestrial Australo‐Melanesian elapids (Hydrophiinae), molecular timescales suggest that the Hydrophiini are also very young, perhaps only ∼8–13 Myr old. Here, we use likelihood‐based analyses of combined phylogenetic and taxonomic data for Hydrophiinae to show that the initial invasion of marine habitats was not accompanied by elevated diversification rates. Rather, a dramatic three to six‐fold increase in diversification rates occurred at least 3–5 Myr after this transition, in a single nested clade: the Hydrophis group accounts for ∼80% of species richness in Hydrophiini and ∼35% of species richness in (terrestrial and marine) Hydrophiinae. Furthermore, other co‐distributed lineages of viviparous sea snakes (and marine Laticauda, Acrochordus and homalopsid snakes) are not especially species rich. Invasion of the oceans has not (by itself) accelerated diversification in Hydrophiini; novelties characterizing the Hydrophis group alone must have contributed to its evolutionary and ecological success.

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Pitviper Scavenging at the Intertidal Zone: An Evolutionary Scenario for Invasion of the Sea

Cited by 38 publications

References 32 publications

Water exchange and permeability properties of the skin in three species of amphibious sea snakes (Laticauda spp.)

Water exchange and permeability properties of the skin in three species of amphibious sea snakes (Laticauda spp.)

Donor-Control of Scavenging Food Webs at the Land-Ocean Interface

Uncoupling ecological innovation and speciation in sea snakes (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae, Hydrophiini)

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