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 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 islands — 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 Medical Papyrus. (Full article...)

Selected article -

Vipera aspis is a viper species found in southwestern Europe. Its common names include asp, asp viper, European asp, and aspic viper, among others. Like all other vipers, it is venomous. Bites from this species can be more severe than from the European adder, V. berus; not only can they be very painful, but approximately 4% of all untreated bites are fatal. The specific epithet, aspis, is a Greek word that means "viper." Five subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated) -

... 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 Missouri's annual Snake Saturday parade originally began in a hotel parking lot with only four floats?
... 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 African ginger is used by the Zulu people to protect against lightning and snake bites?

More did you know? -

... that the East Asian banded red snake can harbour tapeworms and eating its raw meat may lead to parasitic infections?
... that Colombia is home to almost 300 different species of snake?
... that the Mexican kingsnake is sometimes killed because it is misidentified as a venomous coral snake?
...that Crotalus tigris has the highest toxicity of venoms among rattlesnakes, even though it has a low venom yield?
... that Morelia spilota spilota, the Diamond python, of East Gippsland live at the highest altitude of any python?

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

Selected image

description

Leptophis ahaetulla, commonly known as the lora or parrot snake, is a species of medium-sized slender snake of the family Colubridae.