Maxillary Distraction Osteogenesis in Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate Patients with Rigid External Distraction System.

Aim: Distraction osteogenesis (DO) is a treatment option for patients with maxillary hypoplasia secondary to cleft lip and palate (CLP).

Purpose: The aim of this study is to present a technique for maxillary DO using Le Fort I osteotomy with rigid external distraction (RED) system.

Subjects And Methods: The patient presented in this paper was an Asian female with CLP aged 13 years and 6 months.

The origin of snakes: revealing the ecology, behavior, and evolutionary history of early snakes using genomics, phenomics, and the fossil record.

Background: The highly derived morphology and astounding diversity of snakes has long inspired debate regarding the ecological and evolutionary origin of both the snake total-group (Pan-Serpentes) and crown snakes (Serpentes). Although speculation abounds on the ecology, behavior, and provenance of the earliest snakes, a rigorous, clade-wide analysis of snake origins has yet to be attempted, in part due to a dearth of adequate paleontological data on early stem snakes. Here, we present the first comprehensive analytical reconstruction of the ancestor of crown snakes and the ancestor of the snake total-group, as inferred using multiple methods of ancestral state reconstruction.