Portal:Snakes

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The Snake Portal

Corallus caninus

Snakes are elongated, limbless 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, 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...)

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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...)

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... that Vanita Jagdeo Borade has been called the "snake woman" for having rescued more than 50,000 snakes?
... that the Churah Valley kukri snake was discovered because of an Instagram post?
... that Missouri's annual Snake Saturday parade originally began in a hotel parking lot with only four floats?
... that the manga series Reptilia was inspired in part by a story from Japanese folklore about a woman who is transformed into a snake, told to author Kazuo Umezu as a child?
... 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 Isabel Cooper painted live snakes while holding them in her hand?

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...that the saliva of a common garter snake may be toxic to amphibians and other small animals?
... that the rough-scaled sea snake is highly venomous and every scale on its body is adorned with a spine?
... that the Late Cretaceous madtsoiid snake Menarana had several adaptations for head-first burrowing, but its large size may have made burrowing difficult or impossible?
... that mole snakes can inflict serious bite wounds, but nonetheless are said to make good pets?
...that pit vipers and some boas and pythons have specialized facial pits for sensing infrared radiation?

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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 1Medusa (1597) by the Italian artist Caravaggio (from Snake)
Image 2A red-sided garter snake (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 3A common watersnake shedding its skin (from Snake)
Image 4African egg-eating snake eating an egg (from Snake)
Image 5Eupodophis descouensi (from 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 7Australia-Oceania Köppen Map (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 8The Binocellate Cobra(naja naja) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 9Diagram illustrating differential somite size due to difference in somitogenesis clock oscillation (from Snake)
Image 10Dolichophis jugularis preying on a sheltopusik (from Snake)
Image 11Reticulated python skull, showing jaw movements when swallowing (from Snake)
Image 12Mouse embryo 12 day post fertilization side by side with corn snake embryo 2 days post ovo-positioning. (from Snake)
Image 13Golden tree snake climbing a flower (from Snake)
Image 14A snaked coiled in the cavity of a tree (from Snake)
Image 15The Indian cobra is the most common subject of snake charmings. (from Snake)
Image 16The 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 17A 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 18Ballcourt 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 19Approximate world distribution of snakes (from Snake)
Image 20Rod of Asclepius, in which the snake, through ecdysis, symbolizes healing (from Snake)
Image 21Vipera berus, one fang in glove with a small venom stain, the other still in place (from Snake)
Image 22Most 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 23Tetrapodophis (from Snake)
Image 24Narcisse Snake Dens welcome sign (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 25The garter snake has been studied for sexual selection. (from Snake)
Image 26Common Tree Snake (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 27Innocuous milk snakes are often mistaken for coral snakes whose venom is deadly to humans. (from Snake)
Image 28Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 29An adult Barbados threadsnake, Leptotyphlops carlae, on an American quarter dollar (from Snake)
Image 30A neonate sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) sidewinding (from Snake)
Image 31Snakes composing a bronze kerykeion from the mythical Longanus river in Sicily (from Snake)
Image 32Wart snake (Acrochordus granulatus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 33Common Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 34Snake meat, in a Taipei restaurant (from Snake)
Image 35The world's most venomous snake, based on LD₅₀, is the inland taipan of Australia. (from Venomous snake)
Image 36The lateral view of a king cobra's skull showing fangs (from Venomous snake)
Image 37The 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 38Eupodophis descouensi hind leg (from Snake)
Image 39Eastern hognose hooding. (from Snake)
Image 40Crawling prints of a snake (from Snake)
Image 41Close up of a red-sided garter snake

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A Yellow-billed shrike (Binominal name: Corvinella corvina) is a passerine bird in the shrike family. The prey appears to be a species of snake in the family Typhlopidae or Leptotyphlopidae.
Photo credit: Sumeet Moghe