Vertebrate Zoology 69(1): 93-102, doi: 10.26049/VZ69-1-2019-04

Comparative anatomy and homology of jaw adductor muscles of some South Asian colubroid snakes (Serpentes: Colubroidea)

Sunandan Das, Kousik Pramanick

Corresponding author: Sunandan Das ( sdassnake@gmail.com )

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Das S, Pramanick K (2019) Comparative anatomy and homology of jaw adductor muscles of some South Asian colubroid snakes (Serpentes: Colubroidea). Vertebrate Zoology 69(1): 93-102. https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-1-2019-04

Abstract

We studied jaw adductor muscles in eighteen species of South Asian colubroid snakes and presented a comparative account of their anatomy. The deepest layer of external adductor appears to be a composite of aductor mandibulae externus medialis and profundus fibres and caenophidians are characterized by an attenuation of the former muscle which may be correlated with the development of a derived type of mandible. Our observations further suggest that, though highly reduced, fibres homologous to adductor mandibulae externus medialis may be present in at least some colubroids with a bodenaponeurosis. Some hitherto unreported features pertaining to levator anguli oris and pterygomandibularis of some studied elapid, colubrine colubrid and ahaetuliine colubrid genera are also described.

Keywords

Jaw adductor, snakes, Colubroidea, anatomy, musculature, adductor mandibulae externus, adductor internus, adductor posterior, levator anguli oris, pterygomandibularis.