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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Snake venom is a highly toxic saliva containing zootoxins that facilitates in the immobilization and digestion of prey. This also provides defense against threats. Snake venom is usually injected by unique fangs during a bite, though some species are also able to spit venom.

The venom glands that secrete zootoxins are a modification of the parotid salivary glands found in other vertebrates and are usually located on each side of the head, below and behind the eye, and enclosed in a muscular sheath. The venom is stored in large glands called alveoli before being conveyed by a duct to the base of channeled or tubular fangs through which it's ejected. (Full article...)

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... that Vanita Jagdeo Borade has been called the "snake woman" for having rescued more than 50,000 snakes?
... that when a Russian warship asked the Ukrainian defenders of Snake Island to surrender, their response was "Russian warship, go fuck yourself"?
... that Isabel Cooper painted live snakes while holding them in her hand?
... that the Japanese fire-bellied newt tends to show its belly to birds but wag its tail at snakes?
... that Olivia Rodrigo can write ballads about homeschooled girls as well as about songbirds and snakes?
... that following the introduction of the round goby to Lake Erie, the Lake Erie watersnake's population recovered enough to be removed from the U.S. threatened species list?

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A plains gartersnake

... that the Plains Garter Snake (pictured) is one of the most cold-tolerant snakes and often emerges from hibernation to bask on sunny winter days?
... that apart from eating smaller lizards and amphibians, the Central American coral snake also feeds on other snakes?
... that Dwyer's Snake is only weakly venomous and coils into a ball when threatened?
... that the Bahamian Pygmy Boa Constrictor can voluntarily bleed from its eyes, mouth and nostrils?
... that the East Bay Vivarium is the oldest and largest retail vivarium in the United States?

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Quality Content

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 1Crawling prints of a snake (from Snake)
Image 2A snaked coiled in the cavity of a tree (from Snake)
Image 3Narcisse Snake Dens welcome sign (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 4Most 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 5Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 6Common Tree Snake (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 7The Binocellate Cobra(naja naja) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 8Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 9A 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 10An adult Barbados threadsnake, Leptotyphlops carlae, on an American quarter dollar (from Snake)
Image 11Eastern hognose hooding. (from Snake)
Image 12Australia-Oceania Köppen Map (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 13African egg-eating snake eating an egg (from Snake)
Image 14The lateral view of a king cobra's skull showing fangs (from Venomous snake)
Image 15The garter snake has been studied for sexual selection. (from Snake)
Image 16Tetrapodophis (from Snake)
Image 17Close up of a red-sided garter snake
Image 18A neonate sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) sidewinding (from Snake)
Image 19Snakes composing a bronze kerykeion from the mythical Longanus river in Sicily (from Snake)
Image 20The Indian cobra is the most common subject of snake charmings. (from Snake)
Image 21Medusa (1597) by the Italian artist Caravaggio (from Snake)
Image 22Diagram illustrating differential somite size due to difference in somitogenesis clock oscillation (from Snake)
Image 23Ballcourt 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 24The 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 25Snake 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 26Snake meat, in a Taipei restaurant (from Snake)
Image 27Vipera berus, one fang in glove with a small venom stain, the other still in place (from Snake)
Image 28A common watersnake shedding its skin (from Snake)
Image 29Wart snake (Acrochordus granulatus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 30Approximate world distribution of snakes (from Snake)
Image 31Innocuous milk snakes are often mistaken for coral snakes whose venom is deadly to humans. (from Snake)
Image 32The 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 33Eupodophis descouensi hind leg (from Snake)
Image 34Golden tree snake climbing a flower (from Snake)
Image 35Reticulated python skull, showing jaw movements when swallowing (from Snake)
Image 36Rod of Asclepius, in which the snake, through ecdysis, symbolizes healing (from Snake)
Image 37Common Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 38Dolichophis jugularis preying on a sheltopusik (from Snake)
Image 39The world's most venomous snake, based on LD₅₀, is the inland taipan of Australia. (from Venomous snake)
Image 40A red-sided garter snake (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 41Mouse embryo 12 day post fertilization side by side with corn snake embryo 2 days post ovo-positioning. (from Snake)

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Tile with two rabbits, two snakes and a tortoise. Illustration for Zakariya al-Qazwini's book, Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing (13th century). Earthenware, molded and underglaze-painted decoration. Iran, 19th century.
Photo credit: Jastrow