From Reptiles to Gods - Snakes and Their History
There are many animals that in ancient times were venerated, respected and used in rituals because it was believed that they brought good luck, and even their presence was the indicator of success in any plan, activity or project that civilization had. However, there is one species in particular, which despite not being the most tender or safe, received endless offerings, admiration and respect. Today we will unveil a little about what we expose in this introduction, but we will also know its history and evolution, learn more about snakes.
What is the Origin of Snakes?
More than 180 million years ago, Africa and South America were united, at that time, new species of animals began to emerge that adapted to their environment and that is how 130 million years ago snakes appeared. According to the latest discoveries made by scientists. It should be noted that they belong to the vertebrate animals, and in turn they belong to the reptiles, according to historical data, the latter appeared more than 280 million years ago. Worldwide, there are about 2,600 species of snakes, which vary in size, shape and color, and can measure from 3 centimeters to 10 meters.
Did snakes really evolve?
Recently many fossils of these animals have been found, a team of scientists had been studying for years, the idea that snakes had "legs", and this was confirmed by a fossil found in Brazil, which showed that if they had four legs, the name given to this fossil was: "Tetrapodophis amplectus" was characterized by having a long body and a short tail. Nicholas R. Longrich, a researcher from the University of Bath (United Kingdom) in charge of presenting the study carried out on this fossil, emphasizes that: "The habitat of these first snakes was terrestrial". However, it presents characteristics very similar to their modern relatives; fangs, absence of ears and eyelids, according to Longrich, this gives indications that the origin of snakes occurred in burrows. Although this ancient species had four legs, it still crawled on its belly like today's snakes, this makes scientists agree that they did not use their legs to walk, they were only a tool to hold their prey or other snakes to mate.
There is something quite interesting that we should mention, it happens that when we see a snake we automatically think that they are poisonous, however it is not so, they are divided into two groups:
Escolecodios - These group some 260 species, and are classified as non-poisonous, live in warm, tropical habitats. Their diet is based on small animals that live in burrows.
Aletino - However, there are the Venomous ones, which are really dangerous and highly deadly, with about 2400 species, they are the wild and "bad" side of the snakes, their adaptation to the environment is really amazing, because you can see them moving on flat, steep, aquatic surfaces. They can also climb and dig. They feed on species that can be three times their size, and the curious thing is that their upper and lower jaws can separate them.
Many of us have seen animal documentaries, where we see snakes swallowing huge prey, and it is amazing how this species can do that, and it is all due to their digestion, it turns out that their Ph level is very acidic, making them able to digest even the bones of their food. Apart from this, venomous snakes have a point in their favor, and that is that before ingesting their prey, the venom they inject manages to break down the tissues before they come into contact with the gastric juices.
Why is their venom so lethal?
Undoubtedly we see a high mortality rate when we look for statistics of how many people die from snake bites, however this has an explanation why in many cases the consequences are fatal, it turns out that the Prothelitic and Neurotoxic, the first attacks the cells, causing a disastrous destruction of the same and the second, is responsible for affecting the lungs and cause heart failure, that is why we see when they recommend that you have to seek immediate help when snakes attack, however this does not do this without any reason or cause, when they feel threatened this is their way of defending themselves, so it is necessary to always give them their space and stay away from them.
What was the role of snakes in history?
From the Bible we see how the snake has captured the attention of many people, even in some fragments of this sacred book, we can see that God mentions that the Devil became a snake to tempt Eve to sin, and from there we see how the snakes beyond the divine or spiritual, were taken as a "Danger".
The medicine carries as insignia a snake, we see this present in the image of the Greek physician Aesculapius, he uses snakes as a staff, and all thanks to a legend, where a man was already on his deathbed due to the bite of a snake, and while Aesculapius was looking for a way to save his life, a snake with herbs in its mouth came in and gave them to him, and without thinking he ordered the poor dying man to eat the herbs, and to everyone's surprise, he managed to save himself. It is from there that snakes formed the image of medicine.
In Australia the aborigines consider a special snake (Almudj), the creator of water wells, which served to give life to plants and animals. According to the legend this snake can only be seen by the witchdoctors of the villages.
And the same happens with the Hindu, the cobras for them are very sacred, because according to an ancient legend, these snakes saved the life of the God Brahma, the curious thing was how they achieved this, as you know the Cobras have a particular way of widening their head, in this way they did it to protect this God from the rays of the Sun.
And they are not only venerated or feared in these places we mentioned, the same happens in Egypt, Peru, Haiti, Mexico among other places or countries. Curiously, the Egyptians associated snakes with the Goddess of Fertility (Renenutet, who had the head of a snake). The Aztecs believed that they were the reincarnation of the Gods themselves, one of them very famous by the name of Quetzalcoatl. We hope you enjoy this publication, and learn something new, as you will see snakes are a fascinating species, which we must respect and take care of, but above all give them their space, their temperament is not more pleasant than say, it is better to be safe than sorry.
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