Posted by Jaffo on April 26, 2002 at 07:18:43:
In Reply to: Re: Diversionary tactics... posted by Greg Knoell on April 25, 2002 at 18:06:50:
That was my point. I was attempting to use the idea of mimicry in non-venomous colubrids as a precursor to make the observation that tail vibration is a behavior that has been in snakes since before rattls evolved, suggesting a more general cause for evolving such a trait. Rattlesnakes are more evolutionarily advanced, therefore they have had the time to develop more advanced characteristics from fairly common ones.
If we want to know why rattlers devolped rattles, from a behavioral standpoint, we should be able to examine less advanced non-venomous counterparts for some clues.
Again, I am not one to subscribe to the idea of mimicry when it comes to rattlesnakes and non-vens, and I even have problems with suggested coral snake mimicry.
Jaf
