Snakes - The Most Dreaded Reptiles

Snakes are long-bodied, legless, scaly and slithering reptiles that have almost or completely lost their legs, probably as a result of passing through a burrowing stage during their evaluation. Snakes are closely related to lizards, and some scientists believe that snakes are descended from relatives of monitor lizards which adopted a burrowing way of life.

Snakes live in most parts of the world except for the polar regions, New Zealand and various other islands. Snakes vary in size from creatures no longer than a pencil to the huge Anaconda which reaches length of 11 meters. All snakes are hunters. More than 400 kinds of snakes are venomous. Anacondas and Pythons are called constrictors because they constrict or coil around their prey and suffocate it. There are 66 kinds of Anacondas and Pythons, they include some of the largest snakes on Earth.

The snake’s long and relatively slender body has more ribs and vertebrae than other backboned animals, and it is therefore much more flexible. The internal organs are considerably modified to fit into the narrow body. Fore example, the left lung is extremely small or missing altogether and in some species the right lung runs nearly the whole length of the body. Eyelids are absent, but the eyes are covered by transparent scale called a ‘brille’ or ‘spectacle’ which keeps out dirt. Snakes have no eardrums, although they can easily detect vibrations from the ground. The venom is formed in modified salivary glands and carried down the teeth when the snakes bites its victim. Some snakes have poisonous teeth or fangs at the back of the mouth.

These are generally harmless to humans because they cannot normally sink in their fangs. Snakes with fangs at the front of the mouth, such as the Cobra is much more dangerous. Venomous snakes usually strike at their prey and then wait for it to collapse before they start to eat it. Constrictor snakes strike their prey with their teeth and if the prey is large, wrap their bodies around it and squeeze until it suffocates.

The snakes can swallow large animals without chewing them because its jaws are very loosely attached to the skull and two halves of the lower jaw are connected only by elastic ligaments.

The mouth can therefore open very wide. By using its backward pointing teeth, the snakes can gradually work its mouth over its prey, while it breathes by bringing the windpipe opening forward to the front of the mouth. Swallowing and digestion of a large animal may take a long time and some larger snakes probably have only a few meals every year.