Portal:Snakes

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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...)

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Yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus) on a beach in Costa Rica

Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, whereas Laticaudinae only includes the sea kraits (Laticauda), of which three species are found exclusively in freshwater. If these three freshwater species are excluded, there are 69 species of sea snakes divided among seven genera.

Most sea snakes are venomous, except the genus Emydocephalus, which feeds almost exclusively on fish eggs. Sea snakes are extensively adapted to a fully aquatic life and are unable to move on land, except for the sea kraits, which have limited land movement. They are found in warm coastal waters from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and are closely related to venomous terrestrial snakes in Australia. (Full article...)

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... 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 Isabel Cooper painted live snakes while holding them in her hand?
... that the tomb of the overseer of every cultivated place and every desert place threatens grave robbers with crocodiles and snakes?
... that it can be hard to know which Snake is which?
... that Olivia Rodrigo can write ballads about homeschooled girls as well as about songbirds and snakes?
... that following the introduction of the round goby to Lake Erie, the Lake Erie watersnake's population recovered enough to be removed from the U.S. threatened species list?

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... 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?

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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 1The world's most venomous snake, based on LD₅₀, is the inland taipan of Australia. (from Venomous snake)
Image 2Golden tree snake climbing a flower (from Snake)
Image 3Vipera berus, one fang in glove with a small venom stain, the other still in place (from Snake)
Image 4Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 5A neonate sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) sidewinding (from Snake)
Image 6The lateral view of a king cobra's skull showing fangs (from Venomous snake)
Image 7An adult Barbados threadsnake, Leptotyphlops carlae, on an American quarter dollar (from Snake)
Image 8Medusa (1597) by the Italian artist Caravaggio (from Snake)
Image 9Ballcourt 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 10The Binocellate Cobra(naja naja) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 11Dolichophis jugularis preying on a sheltopusik (from Snake)
Image 12Innocuous milk snakes are often mistaken for coral snakes whose venom is deadly to humans. (from Snake)
Image 13Diagram illustrating differential somite size due to difference in somitogenesis clock oscillation (from Snake)
Image 14The 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 15Eupodophis descouensi hind leg (from Snake)
Image 16Crawling prints of a snake (from Snake)
Image 17Mouse embryo 12 day post fertilization side by side with corn snake embryo 2 days post ovo-positioning. (from Snake)
Image 18A common watersnake shedding its skin (from Snake)
Image 19Snake meat, in a Taipei restaurant (from Snake)
Image 20The 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 21Common Tree Snake (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 22The Indian cobra is the most common subject of snake charmings. (from Snake)
Image 23Snakes composing a bronze kerykeion from the mythical Longanus river in Sicily (from Snake)
Image 24Australia-Oceania Köppen Map (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 25A 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 26Tetrapodophis (from Snake)
Image 27A red-sided garter snake (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 28Common Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 29Close up of a red-sided garter snake
Image 30Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 31African egg-eating snake eating an egg (from Snake)
Image 32Wart snake (Acrochordus granulatus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 33The garter snake has been studied for sexual selection. (from Snake)
Image 34Narcisse Snake Dens welcome sign (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 35Approximate world distribution of snakes (from Snake)
Image 36Most 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 37Rod of Asclepius, in which the snake, through ecdysis, symbolizes healing (from Snake)
Image 38Snake 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)