Portal:Snakes

The Snake Portal

Trimeresurus sabahi

Snakes are limbless reptiles of the squamate suborder Serpentes. Closely related to lizards and the tuatara, snakes are ectothermic, amniote, air-breathing vertebrates with an elongated rope-Iike body covered by overlapping scales, and they move around using either undulatory, rectilinear, concertina, sidewinding or slide-pushing locomotions, with some arboreal species even capable of short-ranged gliding flight by flaring out the ribs to flatten and widen the body for aerodynamic lift. Snakes have skulls with significantly fewer sutures and more hypermobile articulations (i.e. cranial kinesis) than their lizard relatives, enabling them to greatly widen the mouth and swallow prey much larger than their heads. 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 only have one functional lung. Despite being tetrapods from a cladistic prospective, snakes lack limbs completely, although pythons and boids retain a vestigial pelvic girdle. Some lizards have also independently evolved a snake-like elongated body without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards, who have eyelids, external ears and a fleshy non-forked tongue that snakes lack, although this rule is not universal.

Snakes are mostly terrestrial with a cosmopolitan distribution, and extant species are found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most island — exceptions include Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and the islands of New Zealand, as well as many small islands of the Atlantic and Central Pacific oceans. Additionally, secondarily aquatic groups such as the sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indo-Pacific regions, while water snakes are found worldwide. Around thirty families are currently recognized, comprising about 520 genera and about more than 4,170 species. They range in size from the tiny, 10.4 cm-long (4.1 in) Barbados threadsnake to the reticulated python up to 6.95 m (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 many-banded krait (Bungarus multicinctus), also known as the Taiwanese krait or the Chinese krait, is an extremely venomous species of elapid snake found in much of central and southern China and Southeast Asia. The species was first described by the scientist Edward Blyth in 1861. Averaging 1 to 1.5 m (3.5 to 5 ft) in length, it is a black or bluish-black snake with many white bands across its body. The many-banded krait mostly inhabits marshy areas throughout its geographical distribution, though it does occur in other habitat types. (Full article...)

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... 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?
... that the Voice of Freedom had to counter venomous snakes, leeches, and other wildlife?
... that Missouri's annual Snake Saturday parade originally began in a hotel parking lot with only four floats?
... that African ginger is used by the Zulu people to protect against lightning and snake bites?
... that Olivia Rodrigo can write ballads about homeschooled girls as well as about songbirds and snakes?

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