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First published online November 5, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 4231-4238 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01278

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Heat in evolution's kitchen: evolutionary perspectives on the functions and origin of the facial pit of pitvipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae)

Aaron R. Krochmal^1,*, George S. Bakken^1, and Travis J. LaDuc^2,

¹ Department of Life Sciences, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA
² Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Department of Natural Sciences, University of Houston - Downtown, One Main Street, Houston, TX 77002, USA (e-mail: KrochmalA{at}uhd.edu)

Accepted 3 September 2004

Pitvipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae) possess thermal radiation receptors, the facial pits, which allow them to detect modest temperature fluctuations within their environments. It was previously thought that these organs were used solely to aid in prey acquisition, but recent findings demonstrated that western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) use them to direct behavioral thermoregulation, suggesting that facial pits might be general purpose organs used to drive a suite of behaviors. To investigate this further, we conducted a phylogenetic survey of viperine thermoregulatory behavior cued by thermal radiation. We assessed this behavior in 12 pitviper species, representing key nodes in the evolution of pitvipers and a broad range of thermal environments, and a single species of true viper (Viperidae: Viperinae), a closely related subfamily of snakes that lack facial pits but possess a putative thermal radiation receptor. All pitviper species were able to rely on their facial pits to direct thermoregulatory movements, while the true viper was unable to do so. Our results suggest that thermoregulatory behavior cued by thermal radiation is a universal role of facial pits and probably represents an ancestral trait among pitvipers. Further, they establish behavioral thermoregulation as a plausible hypothesis explaining the evolutionary origin of the facial pit.

Key words: pitviper, facial pit, behavioral thermoregulation, thermal detection, supranasal sac, snake

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				G. S. Bakken and A. R. Krochmal The imaging properties and sensitivity of the facial pits of pitvipers as determined by optical and heat-transfer analysis J. Exp. Biol., August 15, 2007; 210(16): 2801 - 2810. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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