When to shed? Patterns and drivers of time to first ecdysis in snakes

Abstract

Time from birth or hatching to the first shed (postnatal ecdysis) in snakes ranges from about an hour to several weeks depending upon the species. We assessed patterns in time to postnatal ecdysis in 102 snake species for which we could source appropriate information, covering 2.6% of all extant snake species, and related measures to various biological traits. Reconstruction revealed ancestral time to postnatal ecdysis to be 11 days. Since time to postnatal ecdysis can be shorter or longer than the ancestral state, we argue that there are several competing drivers for time to postnatal ecdysis. A reduced time to postnatal ecdysis has evolved in several lineages, commonly in ambush-foraging, viviparous vipers, while extended time to postnatal ecdysis is associated with oviparous species with maternal care. Of central importance is the impact of postnatal ecdysis on the scent levels of neonates, resulting in a reduction of time to postnatal ecdysis in chemically cryptic species, while the pivotal role of scent in mother–neonate recognition has resulted in the retention or extension of time to postnatal ecdysis. We showed that postnatal ecdysis improves chemical crypsis. The patterns revealed in this study suggest that measures of time to postnatal ecdysis can provide insights into the biology of snakes and be used as an indicator of certain life history traits.