INFLUÊNCIA DA MORFOLOGIA NA UTILIZAÇÃO DE RECURSOS EM UMA TAXOCENOSE DE SERPENTES EM ÁREA DE CAATINGA ARBÓREA NO NORDESTE DO BRASIL

Abstract

An evolutionary method to mitigate competition damage is niche differentiation, where species exploit diverse resources in different ways in the same environment. Despite this, some species are adapted to exploit the available resources in a similar manner, grouping themselves into the artificial categories of ecomorphological guilds. This work aimed to describe the snake assemblage from an area of arboreal Caatinga using morphological, historical and ecological data, evaluating the influence of morphology in the formation of ecological guilds and analyzing the influence of historical factors in the structure of assemblage. The study was carried out in a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN - Fazenda Almas) located in Western Cariri, predominantly in São José dos Cordeiros city and with a small part in the city of Sumé, Paraíba. Principal Component analysis were performed to test the occurrence of morphological similarities between species, Jaccard's similarity coefficient (in the Statistica 7.0 program) for guild formation, and Canonical Phylogenetic Ordination (CPO) method (Giannini, 2003) in order to evaluate the influence of historical factors that structure the assemblage of these snakes. The species formed well established guilds, where the groups formed are morphologically similar, reflecting on the ecological aspects. The guilds were constituted by both phylogenetically close species and by distant ones. Then, it is clear that the structure of this assemblage can be strongly influenced by both factors. It was possible to notice that historical factors influenced the species morphologically only in the most basal division of the group in Scolecophidia and Alethinophidia.