ArticlePLoS biology2021
Rapid increase in snake dietary diversity and complexity following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
Article in PLoS biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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24 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the Role of Prey Availability as a Driver of Seasonal Shifts in Local Distribution of Vipers (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Rise of modern marine fishes captured in an early Paleocene Lagerstätte.Science advances · 2026Article
- Deconstructing cardiovascular and coagulation-related traits links dietary ecology to multi-functional snake venom specificity.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2026Article
- Spatial Structure Explains Morphological Variation Better Than Climatic Gradients in the South American Rattlesnake (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Preservation of stable isotope niche dynamics in squamate museum specimens.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- The Golden Lancehead Genome Reveals Distinct Selective Processes Acting on Venom Genes of an Island Endemic Snake.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- The Influence of Diet on the Composition and Function of Gut Microbiota in Four Snake Species.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Specialist Savvy Versus Generalist Grit: Elucidating the Trade-Offs in Adaptive Dietary Ecomorphology Amongst African Green and Bush Snakes.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Ambient temperature and toxic diets constrain snake venom resistance in a desert rodent.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Ecological drivers of jaw morphological evolution in lepidosaurs.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Intraspecific venom variation in the medically important puff adder (Bitis arietans): Comparative venom gland transcriptomics, in vitro venom activity and immunological recognition by antivenom.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- The rise of dietary diversity in coral reef fishes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Ecological drivers of ultraviolet colour evolution in snakes.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Paedomorphosis and retention of juvenile diet lead speciation in a group of Neotropical snakes (Colubroides-Philodryadini).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Reconstructing the origin and early evolution of the snake brain.Science advances · 2023Article
- Ecological correlates of cranial evolution in the megaradiation of dipsadine snakes.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Dietary niche partitioning of three Sky IslandEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Using natricine snakes to test how prey type and size affect predatory behaviors and performance.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous.Science advances · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Cenozoic marked a period of dramatic ecological opportunity in Earth history due to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs as well as to long-term physiographic changes that created new biogeographic theaters and new habitats. Snakes underwent massive ecological diversification during this period, repeatedly evolving novel dietary adaptations and prey preferences. The evolutionary tempo and mode of these trophic ecological changes remain virtually unknown, especially compared with co-radiating lineages of birds and mammals that are simultaneously predators and prey of snakes. Here, we assemble a dataset on snake diets (34,060 observations on the diets of 882 species) to investigate the history and dynamics of the multidimensional trophic niche during the global radiation of snakes. Our results show that per-lineage dietary niche breadths remained remarkably constant even as snakes diversified to occupy disparate outposts of dietary ecospace. Rapid increases in dietary diversity and complexity occurred in the early Cenozoic, and the overall rate of ecospace expansion has slowed through time, suggesting a potential response to ecological opportunity in the wake of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Explosive bursts of trophic innovation followed colonization of the Nearctic and Neotropical realms by a group of snakes that today comprises a majority of living snake diversity. Our results indicate that repeated transformational shifts in dietary ecology are important drivers of adaptive radiation in snakes and provide a framework for analyzing and visualizing the evolution of complex ecological phenotypes on phylogenetic trees.
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