Length–mass allometry in snakes

摘要: Body size and body shape are tightly related to an animal's physiology, ecology life history, and, as such, play a major role in understanding ecological evolutionary phenomena. Because organisms have different shapes, only uniform proxy of size, such mass, may be suitable for comparisons between taxa. Unfortunately, snake masses rarely reported the literature. On basis 423 species snakes 10 families, we developed clade-specific equations estimation from snout–vent lengths total lengths. We found that predict better than By examining effects phylogeny, well history traits on relationship mass length, viviparous heavier oviparous species, diurnal nocturnal species. Furthermore, microhabitat preferences profoundly influence shape: arboreal lighter terrestrial snakes, whereas aquatic similar length. © 2012 The Linnean Society London, Biological Journal Society, 2012, ●●, ●●–●●.