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| Author(s): |
Mariana Bortoletto Grizante
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Ribeirão Preto. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2009-12-18 |
| Examining board members: |
Tiana Kohlsdorf;
Fernando Ribeiro Gomes;
Max Cardoso Langer
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| Advisor: | Tiana Kohlsdorf |
| Abstract | |
Evolution of snakelike morphology, characterized by both body elongationand and limb reduction, has ocurred several times during evolutionary history of Squamata. Changes in morphological parameters related to locomotion directly affect organismal performance in several activities that are crucial to survival and descendent produciton. Therefore, these morphological changes are expected to be adaptive to the environment where the organism occurs. Ecomorphological studies suggests that the evolution of snakelike morphologies in Squamata ocurred frequently associated to the ocupation of different habitats, giving rise to two distinct ecomorphs: grass-swimming species, which generally have elongation of trunk and tail, and fossorial species, which generally have elongation of trunk and short tail. The aim of the present study was to investigate the existence of evolutionary relationships between ecology and morphological aspects like body elongation and limb reduction in species of neo-tropical lizard family Gymnophthalmidae, evaluating how these evolutionary changes affect locomotor performance. (AU) | |