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HomeScienceBirds, Reptiles & Other VertebratesReptiles
Snake
reptile
WRITTEN BY
Van Wallach See All ContributorsCuratorial Assistant, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Coauthor of Snakes of the World.
Alternative Titles: Serpentes, serpent
ARTICLE CONTENTS
Snake, (suborder Serpentes), also called serpent, any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail. Classified with lizards in the order Squamata, snakes represent a lizard that, over the course of evolution, has undergone structural reduction, simplification, and loss as well as specialization. All snakes lack external limbs, but not all legless reptiles are snakes. Certain burrowing lizards may have only front or hind limbs or be completely legless. Unlike lizards, snakes lack movable eyelids, which results in a continuous and often disconcerting stare. Snakes also lack external ear openings. Internally, they have lost the urinary bladder. The visceral organs are elongated, with reduction of the left member in relation to the right; the left lung is greatly reduced or even lost entirely. However, snakes possess increased numbers of vertebrae and have developed two novelties among vertebrates: a tracheal lung in the neck region and a venom-conducting system for subduing prey.
Snakes (suborder Serpentes). Click on an individual drawing to see a larger image.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Snake
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Snakes are thought to have evolved from terrestrial lizards as early as the Middle Jurassic Epoch (174.1 million to 163.5 million years ago). The oldest known fossil snake, Eophis underwoodi, was a small snake that lived in southern England about 167 million years ago.
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Snakes And Man
Snakes are misunderstood and often maligned, primarily out of ignorance about their true nature and position in the natural world. All snakes are predators, but venomous snakes (that is, biting snakes that use their fangs to inject toxins into their victims) have given an inaccurate reputation to the entire group, as most people cannot tell the dangerous from the harmless. Only a small percentage (fewer than 300 species) are venomous, and of those only about half are capable of inflicting a lethal bite. Although snakebite mortality worldwide is estimated at 30,000–40,000 people per year, the majority of deaths (25,000–35,000) occur in Southeast Asia, principally because of poor medical treatment, malnutrition of victims, and a large number of venomous species. Although there are 8,000 venomous snakebites per year in the United States, the average number of annual fatalities is only a dozen or so per year—fewer than are attributed to bee stings and lightning strikes. In Mexico, 10 times as many people die annually from bee stings as from snakebites.
Behold the rattlesnake's rattle, thought to be a warning device to other organismsThe rattle of a rattlesnake.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.See all videos for this article
Snakes can control the amount of venom they inject and may bite aggressively for food or defensively for protection. Snakes have a limited amount of venom available at any given time and do not want to waste it on nonprey organisms. As a result, about 40 percent of bites suffered by humans are defensive in nature and “dry” (without envenomation). Statistics show that the vast majority of snakebites occur while either catching and handling captive snakes or trying to molest or kill wild ones. In either case, the snake is only defending itself. Rattlesnakes, for example, are venomous, and large ones are quite dangerous owing to the amount of venom they can inject. However, most are shy and retreating, and none will attack a person unmolested. When approached or molested, they will coil up and rattle as a warning to be left alone, striking only as a last resort. Most cases of reputed snake attack are based upon encroachment by a person into the snake’s territory, which makes it feel trapped or cornered, or provocation of a snake during the breeding season. Even in these scenarios, only two snakes have a reputation as dangerous aggressors: the black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) of Africa and the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) of Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, snakes are inoffensive under the vast majority of circumstances. People are rarely indifferent about them, generally exhibiting emotions that range from religious awe and superstitious dread to repulsion and uncontrollable fear. It is interesting to note that, although most people profess to fear or hate snakes, one of the most visited areas of any zoo is the snake house—proof that snakes are mysterious and fascinating, even if they are loathed. Given their exquisite colours, patterns, and graceful movements as they crawl, swim, or climb, some snakes can be considered among the most beautiful animals.
timber rattlesnakeTimber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus).Jack Dermid
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In common parlance, venomous snakes are often referred to as “poisonous snakes.” This phrase is not technically correct, because the term “poisonous” only applies to organisms that unload their toxins when another organism consumes them. Very few snakes are truly poisonous. One of the most common, yet harmless, poisonous snakes in North America is the garter snake (Thamnophis), whose body has the ability to absorb and store the toxins of the newts, salamanders, and other poisonous prey it eats.
Nearly every culture since prehistoric times (including various present-day cultures) has worshipped, revered, or feared snakes. Serpent worship is one of the earliest forms of veneration, with some carvings dating to 10,000 BCE. Although Satan is depicted as a serpent in the biblical account of the Creation, snakes are revered by most societies. A vast global compendium of superstitions and mythologies about snakes has sprung up. Many stem from the snakes’ biological peculiarities: their ability to shed their skin is associated with immortality; their ever-open eyes represent omniscience; their propensity for sudden appearance and disappearance allies snakes with magic and ghosts; a phallic resemblance embodies procreative powers; and the ability to kill with a single bite engenders fear of any snakelike creature.
The hides of six snake species (especially pythons and wart snakes) are commonly bought and sold in the skin trade. The number of rattlesnakes used for their skins is minor in comparison. Hundreds of thousands of live snakes are collected for sale in the international pet trade. Nearly 100,000 ball pythons and 30,000 boa constrictors are imported annually into the United States. The removal of such enormous numbers from the wild threatens the survival of these species, and many snake populations are in decline as a result of capture and habitat destruction.
Natural History
Learn how the predatory pilot black snake strikes, suffocates, and consumes whole its rodent preyThe pilot black snake (Elaphe obsoleta) suffocates prey such as rats and mice before swallowing them whole.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.See all videos for this article
Most snakes do not spend much of their time doing anything but resting. A snake’s primary activity is concerned with either thermoregulation or finding live food, which often involves passive waiting rather than active searching. The thermoregulation problem varies with latitude and altitude. The actions and reactions of a snake in temperate North America are distinct from those of one living in the American tropical lowlands but are similar to those of another living at higher altitudes in the Andes of Ecuador. No matter where they live, snakes are subjected to pressures from the living (biotic) parts of the environment as well as from the physical, nonliving (abiotic) parts. But the amount or degree of challenge to the snake from different segments of the environment changes drastically depending upon the region it inhabits. An individual living in the hot, humid tropics of Africa, with comparatively constant temperatures close to optimum throughout the year and ample moisture from both rainfall and the surroundings, faces environmental problems that are overwhelmingly biotic, involving competition with other members of its own species for food, the challenge from other species of snakes and perhaps other vertebrates for possession of the ecological niche, and constant pressure of the predators that find it a tasty morsel. On the other hand, the common adder, or European viper (Vipera berus), living north of the Arctic Circle in Europe, is the only snake present in the area and lives practically unchallenged in its niche. However, its survival is challenged continually by its physical environment, and death from overheating, freezing, or dehydration is a repetitive threat. These differences between animals from different parts of the world are reflected in their life histories, and it is neither possible nor legitimate to speak of the “life history of the snake” unless one speaks of only a single region or species.
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