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Endless forms most beautiful: the evolution of ophidian oral glands, including the venom system, and the use of appropriate terminology for homologous structures

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Abstract

The differentiated serous-secreting dental glands of caenophidian snakes are diverse in form despite their developmental homology. This variation makes the elucidation of their evolutionary history a complex task. In addition, some authors identify as many as ten discrete types/subtypes of ophidian oral gland. Over the past decade and a half, molecular systematics and toxinology have deepened our understanding of the evolution of these fascinating and occasionally enigmatic structures. This paper includes a comprehensive examination of ophidian oral gland structure and (where possible) function, as well as new data on rictal glands and their associated anatomy. Following this, appropriate use of terminology, especially that pertaining to homologous structures (including the controversial “venom gland” vs “Duvernoy’s gland” debate), is considered. An interpretation of the evolutionary history of the ophidian venom system, drawing on recent results from molecular systematics, toxinology and palaeontology, concludes the paper.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Garth Underwood. TNJ was funded by a UQ PhD Scholarship and BGF was funded by the Australian Research Council. We thank Thomas Oerther and Dieter Gross for their MRI help.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Venom Evolution Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Timothy N. W. Jackson, James Dobson, Iwan Hendrikx, Chris Hay & Bryan G. Fry

  2. Department of Anatomy, Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, A. T. Still University of Health Sciences, 800 W. Jefferson, Kirksville, MO, 63501, USA

    Bruce Young

  3. Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Garth Underwood & Colin J. McCarthy

  4. Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Elazar Kochva

  5. Département Systématique et Evolution, ISYEB, UMR7205 MNHN-CNRS-UPMC-EPHE, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CP 30, 25 rue Cuvier, 75005, Paris, France

    Nicolas Vidal

  6. Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, 2300 RC, The Netherlands

    Louise van der Weerd & Rob Nabuurs

  7. Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Louise van der Weerd & Rob Nabuurs

  8. School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    James Dobson & Daryl Whitehead

  9. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Freek J. Vonk

Authors
  1. Timothy N. W. Jackson
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  2. Bruce Young
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  3. Garth Underwood
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  4. Colin J. McCarthy
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  5. Elazar Kochva
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  6. Nicolas Vidal
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  7. Louise van der Weerd
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  8. Rob Nabuurs
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  9. James Dobson
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  10. Daryl Whitehead
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  11. Freek J. Vonk
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  12. Iwan Hendrikx
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  13. Chris Hay
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  14. Bryan G. Fry
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bryan G. Fry.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Animal rights statement

This paper complied with the relevant legislation surrounding animal use, and all work was done on previously collected, preserved specimens in collections, and thus, animal ethics approval was not needed.

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Jackson, T.N.W., Young, B., Underwood, G. et al. Endless forms most beautiful: the evolution of ophidian oral glands, including the venom system, and the use of appropriate terminology for homologous structures. Zoomorphology 136, 107–130 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-016-0332-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-016-0332-9

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