Portal:Snakes

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The Snake Portal

Corallus caninus

Snakes are elongated, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (/sɜːrˈpɛntiːz/). Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamidae, and Pygopodidae).

Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most smaller land masses; exceptions include some large islands, such as Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and the islands of New Zealand, as well as many small islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific oceans. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans. Around thirty families are currently recognized, comprising about 520 genera and about 3,900 species. They range in size from the tiny, 10.4 cm-long (4.1 in) Barbados threadsnake to the reticulated python of 6.95 meters (22.8 ft) in length. The fossil species Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 meters (42 ft) long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards, perhaps during the Jurassic period, with the earliest known fossils dating to between 143 and 167 Ma ago. The diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene epoch (c. 66 to 56 Ma ago, after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event). The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus. (Full article...)

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Crotalus cerastes

Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small animals such as birds and rodents.

Rattlesnakes receive their name from the rattle located at the end of their tails, which makes a loud rattling noise when vibrated that deters predators. Rattlesnakes are the leading contributor to snakebite injuries in North America, but rarely bite unless provoked or threatened; if treated promptly, the bites are seldom fatal. (Full article...)

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... that the Japanese fire-bellied newt tends to show its belly to birds but wag its tail at snakes?
... that salt marsh snakes drink only rainwater?
... that Olivia Rodrigo can write ballads about homeschooled girls as well as about songbirds and snakes?
... that the Voice of Freedom had to counter venomous snakes, leeches, and other wildlife?
... that the Churah Valley kukri snake was discovered because of an Instagram post?
... that Kenji Tanigaki, the action director of Rurouni Kenshin and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, began his career as a stuntman on the invitation of action choreographer Stephen Tung?

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... that the Honduran milk snake's color resemblance to the coral snake, known as Batesian mimicry, helps protect it from potential predators?
...that the range of Nelson's Milksnake (Albino specimen pictured) from Mexico is linked to watercourses, and that it was thought to be the same subspecies as the more common Sinaloan Milksnake until 1978?
... that forest cobras (pictured) can grow up to 2.7 metres (8.9 feet) and kill in 20 minutes?
... that Dubois' seasnake is one of at least seventeen sea snake species living in the Coral Sea, and has the world's most toxic sea snake venom?
... that Lycodon chrysoprateros, a snake species endemic to the Philippines, is considered critically endangered because its range is only 52 square kilometres (20 sq mi)?

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Featured snake-related articles - George Went Hensley - List of snakes of Trinidad and Tobago
Good snake-related articles - Agkistrodon piscivorus - Bitis arietans - Bitis gabonica - Black mamba - Black-necked spitting cobra - Eastern green mamba - Forest cobra - Hydrophiinae - Many-banded krait - Nerodia clarkii - Russell's viper - Snake scales - Vipera berus - Western green mamba

General images

The following are images from various snake-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Binocellate Cobra(naja naja) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 2Narcisse Snake Dens welcome sign (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 3A line diagram from The Fauna of British India by G. A. Boulenger (1890), illustrating the terminology of shields on the head of a snake (from Snake)
Image 4Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 5Snakes composing a bronze kerykeion from the mythical Longanus river in Sicily (from Snake)
Image 6Common Tree Snake (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 7The skeletons of snakes are radically different from those of most other reptiles (as compared with the turtle here, for example), consisting almost entirely of an extended ribcage. (from Snake)
Image 8Golden tree snake climbing a flower (from Snake)
Image 9An adult Barbados threadsnake, Leptotyphlops carlae, on an American quarter dollar (from Snake)
Image 10Diagram illustrating differential somite size due to difference in somitogenesis clock oscillation (from Snake)
Image 11A snaked coiled in the cavity of a tree (from Snake)
Image 12Vipera berus, one fang in glove with a small venom stain, the other still in place (from Snake)
Image 13A red-sided garter snake (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 14Snake coiled on a stick in Oklahoma. It was brumating in a large pile of wood chips, found by this landscaper after he bulldozed the pile in late autumn 2018. (from Snake)
Image 15Crawling prints of a snake (from Snake)
Image 16Eupodophis descouensi hind leg (from Snake)
Image 17Mouse embryo 12 day post fertilization side by side with corn snake embryo 2 days post ovo-positioning. (from Snake)
Image 18Tetrapodophis (from Snake)
Image 19Australia-Oceania Köppen Map (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 20A neonate sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) sidewinding (from Snake)
Image 21Approximate world distribution of snakes (from Snake)
Image 22Dolichophis jugularis preying on a sheltopusik (from Snake)
Image 23Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 24Medusa (1597) by the Italian artist Caravaggio (from Snake)
Image 25A common watersnake shedding its skin (from Snake)
Image 26Ballcourt marker from the Postclassic site of Mixco Viejo in Guatemala. This sculpture depicts Kukulkan, jaws agape, with the head of a human warrior emerging from his maw. (from Snake)
Image 27Most common symptoms of any kind of snake bite envenomation. Furthermore, there is vast variation in symptoms between bites from different types of snakes. (from Snake)
Image 28Snake meat, in a Taipei restaurant (from Snake)
Image 29Wart snake (Acrochordus granulatus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 30The garter snake has been studied for sexual selection. (from Snake)
Image 31The Indian cobra is the most common subject of snake charmings. (from Snake)
Image 32The lateral view of a king cobra's skull showing fangs (from Venomous snake)
Image 33The world's most venomous snake, based on LD₅₀, is the inland taipan of Australia. (from Venomous snake)
Image 34Close up of a red-sided garter snake
Image 35Common Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 36The reverse side of the throne of Pharaoh Tutankhamun with four golden uraeus cobra figures. Gold with lapis lazuli; Valley of the Kings, Thebes (1347–37 BCE). (from Snake)
Image 37Eastern hognose hooding. (from Snake)
Image 38Innocuous milk snakes are often mistaken for coral snakes whose venom is deadly to humans. (from Snake)
Image 39Rod of Asclepius, in which the snake, through ecdysis, symbolizes healing (from Snake)
Image 40African egg-eating snake eating an egg (from Snake)
Image 41Reticulated python skull, showing jaw movements when swallowing (from Snake)