Ontogenetic shifts of heart position in snakes

AbstractHeart position relative to total body length (TL) varies among snakes, with anterior hearts in arboreal species and more centrally located hearts in aquatic or ground‐dwelling species. Anterior hearts decrease the cardiac work associated with cranial blood flow and minimize drops in cranial pressure and flow during head‐up climbing. Here, we investigate whether heart position shifts intraspecifically during ontogenetic increases in TL. Insular Florida cottonmouth snakes, Agkistrodon conanti, are entirely ground‐dwelling and have a mean heart position that is 33.32% TL from the head. In contrast, arboreal rat snakes, Pantherophis obsoleta, of similar lengths have a mean heart position that is 17.35% TL from the head. In both species, relative heart position shifts craniad during ontogeny, with negative slopes = −.035 and −.021% TL/cm TL in Agkistrodon and Pantherophis, respectively. Using a large morphometric data set available for Agkistrodon (N = 192 individuals, 23–140 cm TL), we demonstrate there is an anterior ontogenetic shift of the heart position within the trunk (= 4.56% trunk length from base of head to cloacal vent), independent of head and tail allometry which are both negative. However, in longer snakes > 100 cm, the heart position reverses and shifts caudally in longer Agkistrodon but continues toward the head in longer individuals of Pantherophis. Examination of data sets for two independent lineages of fully marine snakes (Acrochordus granulatus and Hydrophis platurus), which do not naturally experience postural gravity stress, demonstrate both ontogenetic patterns for heart position that are seen in the terrestrial snakes. The anterior migration of the heart is greater in the terrestrial species, even if TL is standardized to that of the longer P. obsoleta, and compensates for about 5 mmHg gravitational pressure head if they are fully upright.