EEB267H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Shoulder Girdle, Anguimorpha, Hyaluronidase
14 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Derived snakes have no pelvic girdle: different from a limbless turtle. However, basal serpents have a pelvic girdle. Characteristic: pair of cloacal scent glands: smelly, thick substance secreted, function: perhaps for defense. Basal groups (blind snakes, thread snakes) are burrowers who eat small, eat often : e. g. , ants, termites. Most other snakes eat big and eat rarely: must solve the big body/little head (small gape) problem. Cranial kinesis and the art of eating big. Cranial kinesis: flexible skull has to do with the way they can eat: the lower jaw (mandible) Ligament between the left and right mandible is not fused: mandibular liberation mandibles are liberated from one another. Joint in the mandible: jaw is able to flex increases area. Articulation between the quadrate and the mandible: able to swing its lower jaw around the lower jaw. Articulation between the quadrate and a moveable bone in the skull: can move jaw independently, the upper jaw (palatomaxillary arch)
