Index Catalog // Deep Blue Data

Ecological drivers of ultraviolet colour evolution in snakes.

Creator:: Crowell, Hayley L . , Curlis, John David, Weller, Hannah I., and Davis Rabosky, Alison R.
Description:: Ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths invisible to humans are primarily studied in the context of reproduction and social signaling. This narrow focus can arise from bias in taxa studied, which are often brightly colored in human-visible wavelengths. Our research describes undocumented UV color patterns across 110 diverse species of Western Hemisphere snakes and tests the hypothesized roles of reproduction versus predator avoidance in the evolution of UV coloration. Phylogenetically-informed tests of life stage, sex, and habitat showed unexpected support for the predator defense hypothesis, with pronounced differences in snake conspicuousness explained by UV coloration. UV reflectance was not predictable from any aspect of visible color pattern, suggesting high potential for transformative discoveries in other “cryptically-colored” lineages across the tree of life.
Keyword:: color, ecology, evolution, predators, snakes, and ultraviolet
Citation to related publication:: Crowell, H. L., Curlis, J. D., Weller, H. I., & Davis Rabosky, A. R. (2024). Ecological drivers of ultraviolet colour evolution in snakes. Nature Communications, 15(1), 5213. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49506-4
Discipline:: Science

Creator:: University of Michigan, Division of Herpetology, Davis Rabosky, Alison R, Larson, Joanna G, Moore, Talia Y, and Curlis, John David
Description:: This dataset includes dorsal and ventral photographs of Neotropical snakes collected in the Peruvian Amazon. These data were collected to survey and examine the diversity in color pattern evolution in Neotropical snakes.
Keyword:: snake, color, serpentes, and Peru
Citation to related publication:: (work in progress, not yet submitted)
Discipline:: Science

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Creator:: University of Michigan, Division of Herpetology, Davis Rabosky, Alison R, Moore, Talia Y., Larson, Joanna G., Curlis, John David, Westeen, Erin P., Sealey, Briana A., and Balinski, Bailey A.
Description:: All animal-related procedures were approved by the University of Michigan Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocols #PRO00006234 and #PRO00008306) and the Peruvian government SERFOR (Servicio Nacional Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre. and Data were collected during five field expeditions in the Amazonian lowlands of Peru from March 2016 to December 2018.
Keyword:: snake behavior, coral snake mimicry, serpentes, Peruvian Amazon, and Elapidae
Discipline:: Science

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