DNA shows young Coronella need reptile food

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DNA shows young Coronella need reptile food

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:20 pm

This was brought to my attention by Peter Engelen.

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-young-smoo ... tiles.html

I sent the relevant paper to Mario (just in case it's not available to all or already in Mario's DB).
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Re: DNA shows young Coronella need reptile food

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:55 pm

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Re: DNA shows young Coronella need reptile food

Postby Will Atkins » Wed Aug 13, 2014 6:37 pm

it's a nice use of DNA analysis, though I'm not sure I would agree with their suggestion that the reliance of young smooth snakes on reptiles explains their restricted heathland habitat in the UK. Young adders are highly dependent on small viviparous lizards, at least for the first months of their lives, and in the UK they are found all the way up to the north of Scotland in a wide variety of habitats, providing that there is good lizard availability...
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