Portal:Snakes

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The Snake Portal

Pope's pit viper (Trimeresurus popeiorum)

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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The western diamondback rattlesnake or Texas diamond-back (Crotalus atrox) is a rattlesnake species and member of the viper family, found in the southwestern United States and Mexico. Like all other rattlesnakes and all other vipers, it is venomous. It is likely responsible for the majority of snakebite fatalities in northern Mexico and the greatest number of snakebites in the U.S. No subspecies are currently recognized.

It lives in elevations from below sea level up to 6,500 feet (2,000 m). This species ranges throughout the Southwestern United States and northern half of Mexico. Currently, western diamondback rattlesnakes are not threatened or endangered. (Full article...)

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... that Missouri's annual Snake Saturday parade originally began in a hotel parking lot with only four floats?
... 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?
... that Vanita Jagdeo Borade has been called the "snake woman" for having rescued more than 50,000 snakes?
... that table tennis commentator Adam Bobrow's nickname "Snakeman" comes from a trick shot called "the snake"?
... that salt marsh snakes drink only rainwater?
... that the Maloja Wind in Switzerland can produce a narrow and elongated low-lying cloud known as the "Maloja Snake"?

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...that the saliva of a common garter snake may be toxic to amphibians and other small animals?
... that the rough-scaled sea snake is highly venomous and every scale on its body is adorned with a spine?
... that the Late Cretaceous madtsoiid snake Menarana had several adaptations for head-first burrowing, but its large size may have made burrowing difficult or impossible?
... that mole snakes can inflict serious bite wounds, but nonetheless are said to make good pets?
...that pit vipers and some boas and pythons have specialized facial pits for sensing infrared radiation?

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