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    The Potential of the Hose-bridge to Mitigate Snake Mortality on Low Volume Roadways

    Measuring Sexual Size Dimorphism and Sexual Body Component Dimorphism in Snakes: Sexual, Population, and Seasonal Variation in Body Size Relationships...

    Snakes in the Subarctic: Fall Phenology of the Red-Sided Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) at a Northern Range Extreme

    Seasonal Variation in Metabolism and Immunity in the Rubber Boa (Charina bottae)

    Influence of Prey Size on Reproduction among Populations of Diamond-backed Watersnakes (Nerodia rhombifer)

    Effects of Wildfires on Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus) Growth and Microhabitat Use in Washington State

    Neuromuscular Activity and Prey Specificity of North American Coral Snake Venoms: Micrurus browni as a Case Study

    Genetic Diversity of the Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) in Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Southwest Michigan

    Do Free-ranging Rattlesnakes Use Thermal Cues to Detect and Evaluate Prey?

    Mind the Gap: Effects of Habitat and Climate on Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon) Distribution in Maine

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    Accepted Abstracts

     

     

     

    A Summary and Update on Homalopsid Snakes, Their Diversity, and Biogeography

    Murphy, John C.

     

    Field Museum

    1400 S Lake Shore Drive

    Chicago, IL USA

     

    Homalopsid snakes are monophyletic and distributed from the tropics of South Asian to Australasia, with an outlier population in the western Pacific. Recent molecular studies have considered them the sister group to colubroids and lamprophiids, or suggest they be placed in the Endoglyptodonta as a monophyletic group containing the vipers, homalopsids, elapoids, and colubroids. Other molecular analyses suggested the crown homalopsids are of early Miocene origin and that the family originated about 53.4 MYA. Currently 54 species are recognized in 28 genera. There are additional undescribed species and genera. The most basal taxa are terrestrial, lack rear fangs, feed on worms, and are restricted to Indonesia. The more derived clades tend to be aquatic, have rear fangs and feed on fish or crustaceans. The greatest species diversity currently recognized occurs in the Indochinese Peninsula and the adjacent Sunda Shelf. I will discuss the biogeography and natural history of homalopsids, along with the challenges of developing future knowledge of these interesting snakes

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