Snakes are long legless reptiles that play a vital role in the natural environment as well as food webs. They have a high-developed sense of sight, taste, touch, hearing, and can track their pry with great as. Some snakes have lethal venom that paralysis and kills their prey while other have muscular bodies for squeezing their prey to death. Several types of snakes exist in different parts of the world from small ones to the giant serpents some living in water (Seigel et al. 453). Some people fear snakes terribly yet there are some that are harmless since they have no venom. In the story Sweat by Zola Neale Hurston published in 1926, Delia is terrified of a snake that her husband brings to the house, which finally bite him (Hurston). The ecological conditions have affected the nature of snakes leading to adaptation tactics that enable them to survive the changing environments therefore, snakes are exceptionally diverse leading to a great deal of evolutionary change.
According to anatomical and phylogenetic research, snakes evolved from lizards as terrestrial vertebrates (Caprette 469). The lizards and snakes are highly sensitive to changes in temperatures resulting from factors that include climate change because of their exothermic nature. This condition requires snakes to depend on ambient environmental temperatures for maintaining vital physiological processes. Snakes have a very close relation to lizards and the changes in the environmental conditions have led to evolution of snakes in different parts of the world. There are more than 3400 species of snakes occupying different environments such as terrestrial, aquatic, arboreal, and fossorial (Willson and Dorcas 2). Development and natural selection has led to morphological skull disparities associated with the snakes and lizards. The variation in cranial structures is closely linked to ecological habitats and diet choices in snakes. Snake evolution and diversification was not a simple process but involved the interplay between natural selection and developmental processes. This created a new “underground lifestyles followed by colonization of several habitats that include water, forests, deserts, and prairies.
Evolutionary convergence and divergence has affected the characteristics of snakes depending on the areas lived. Convergence occurs over time and constitutes widespread patterns, which occur whenever separate species independently go through evolution with similar phenotypes to respond to similar ecological conditions. Convergence in pairs of species is frequently used as a proof of adaptations through natural selection. For instance, morphology of the snake’s skull is affected by habitat specialization since there is a potential relationship between skull shapes and habitat preferences. The cranial shape difference in various ecological niches determine between the fossorial ecology and all other habitat modes (Willson and Dorcas 3). Natural selection influenced the size and shape of evolution toward small, encased, and inflexible skulls that were adapted to fossorial environments. Ancestral state reconstructions show that the ancestors of crown snakes and total-group snakes were nocturnal that foraged hunted their prey. The serpents consumed soft-bodied vertebrates and invertebrates creatures that lived in similar environments. They lived in terrestrial places in regions that were well-watered vegetated. An example of snake originated on land in the middle Early Cretaceous after which the crown-group followed almost 20 million years later; in the Albian stage (Hsiang et al 3). The snakes inhabited placed with vegetation as well as in warm, moist, and equable climates.
Venomous snakes differ depending on the ecological location of the reptile. For instance, venom from the eastern diamondback rattlesnakes that live in Everglades is different from the toxins from a similar species living in Florida panhandle. However, in the Southeastern United States, the venom of the eastern coral snake is normally the same (Caprette 471). Thus, geographical location of snake tends to alter some characteristics as well as venom variation in two snake species. Every venomous snake type can produce specific venom, containing almost 50-200 toxic proteins and protein fragments, which changes with the typical prey of the snake (Lillywhite 317). The smaller reptiles consumed by the eastern coral snake or the rodents eaten by rattlesnakes will determine the amount of venom released. Therefore, evolutionary attacks and counterattacks the existing genetic variations, which increase venom resistance that spreads in the prey populations, affecting the snake venom recipe that helps in restoring its effectiveness. Local co-adaptations that connect the predator and prey and considerable region diversity in the variant and amount of the varying venom proteins are important. The amount of proteins found in coral snakes venom in different parts of state could not be distinguished from the country as the coral snakes, release venom consisting of different ratios of poisonous proteins almost each sub-population of the snake. For instance two venom components, in which one is known to lead to paralysis in preys, can be traced at high levels in the northern populations, but are absent in the snakes from Caladesi Island in Tampa (Lillywhite 317). Ecological distributions therefore, facilitate existence of variations in snakes of the same species. The case can be a reflection of the difference in co-evolutionary developments between the species and the typical reptilian preys.
Snakes are known to have a wide diversity of skin color patterns. The arrangement of body colors is associated with behavior especially the tendency to flee from predators. Snakes containing plain or longitudinal stripes often have to escape from predators without being notice. Plain snakes are known to adopt active hunting strategies since their patterns enable them to inform the prey about movement. Blotched snakes apply the tactic of ambush-based strategies since it facilitates blending into an environment containing irregularly shaped objects such as like sticks, rocks, or leaves (Sheehy et al 245). Serpents live in various climates that include arid deserts and open oceans thus the ecological and evolutionary origins of snakes require extensive research. In addition, the evolution and development of their limbs as well as axial skeleton suggests that there is a relationship between limb loss and body elongation for serpents. The studies that assessed the early ecological and evolutionary origin of snakes dealt with discrete morphological variations.
Snakes are fascinating animals to some people and scientists although some individuals are scared of them just like Delia in the short story, Sweat. Some studies on snake ecology and origins have been done to promote understanding of snake species. However, there is need for a more comprehensive research of the ecology such as population biology. The gaps in this area limit human ability in developing effective conservations and management strategies for conservation effort. Study of snakes and ecology avails various opportunities for ecological knowledge related to other taxa. The shapes as well as number of scales on various body parts such as the head, back, and belly can be utilized for taxonomic purposes. Therefore, more studies on ecological evolution of snakes can offer extra ideas about the existence of different types of snakes in the universe.
Works Cited
Caprette, Christopher L., et al. “The Origin of Snakes (Serpentes) as Seen through Eye Anatomy.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 81, no. 4, Apr. 2004, pp. 469–482. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2003.00305.x.
Hsiang, Allison Y., et al. “The Origin of Snakes: Revealing the Ecology, Behavior, and Evolutionary History of Early Snakes Using Genomics, Phenomics, and the Fossil Record.” BMC Evolutionary Biology, vol. 15, no. 1, July 2015, pp. 1–22. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1186/s12862-015-0358-5.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Sweat. Rutgers University Press, 1997.
Lillywhite, Harvey B. “Snakes: Ecology and Conservation.” BioScience, vol. 60, no. 4, Apr. 2010, pp. 315–317. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.4.11.
Seigel, Richard A., et al. “Ecology of an Aquatic Snake (Thamnophis Marcianus) in a Desert Environment: Implications of Early Timing of Birth and Geographic Variation in Reproduction.” American Midland Naturalist, vol. 143, no. 2, Apr. 2000, p. 453. EBSCOhost, libproxy.estrellamountain.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=2994839&site=ehost-live.
Sheehy, Coleman M., et al. “The Evolution of Tail Length in Snakes Associated with Different Gravitational Environments.” Functional Ecology, vol. 30, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 244–254. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12472.
Willson, John D., and Michael E. Dorcas. “Aspects of the Ecology of Small Fossorial Snakes in the Western Piedmont of North Carolina.” Southeastern Naturalist, vol. 3, no. 1, Mar. 2004, pp. 1–12. EBSCOhost, libproxy.estrellamountain.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=12807293&site=ehost-live.
