Portal:Snakes

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Snake Portal

Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous 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, the Hawaiian archipelago, 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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

An adult Barbados threadsnake on an American quarter dollar

The Barbados threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma carlae) is a species of threadsnake. It is the smallest known snake species. This member of the Leptotyphlopidae family is found on the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Anguilla. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that the stargazer snake eel sometimes has a shrimp perched on its head?
... 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 salt marsh snakes drink only rainwater?
... that table tennis commentator Adam Bobrow's nickname "Snakeman" comes from a trick shot called "the snake"?
... that Olivia Rodrigo can write ballads about homeschooled girls as well as about songbirds and snakes?

edit

More did you know? - show different entries

... that the speed of the red whip snake enables it to feed largely on lizards?
... that the bite of the colourful Collett's snake can lead to rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure?
... that biologist Robert C. Stebbins published research on the sidewinder rattlesnake?
... that in 2007, three specimens of the Caspian whipsnake were found in Galați County, the first in Moldavia (eastern Romania) since 1937?
... that the Discovery Channel special Eaten Alive did not actually feature anyone being eaten alive?

More Did you know facts

edit

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