Portal:Snakes

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

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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

N. clarkii compressicauda,
red color phase

Nerodia clarkii, commonly known as the salt marsh snake, is a species of semi-aquatic, nonvenomous, colubrid snake found in the southeastern United States. Their range extends along the brackish salt marshes of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast from Texas to Florida, with an additional population in northern Cuba. Different subspecies of this snake are primarily identified via color patterns on each snake's belly, or anterior. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

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

... that the Churah Valley kukri snake was discovered because of an Instagram post?
... that the Maloja Wind in Switzerland can produce a narrow and elongated low-lying cloud known as the "Maloja Snake"?
... that Vanita Jagdeo Borade has been called the "snake woman" for having rescued more than 50,000 snakes?
... that table tennis commentator Adam Bobrow's nickname "Snakeman" comes from a trick shot called "the snake"?
... that the tomb of the overseer of every cultivated place and every desert place threatens grave robbers with crocodiles and snakes?
... 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?

edit

More did you know? - show different entries

...that the Scarlet King Snake can be distinguished from the Coral Snake by the mnemonic "red and yellow, kill a fellow" and "red and black venom lack"?
... that venom is thought to have had a single origin in the evolutionary history of snakes?
... that in local New Guinea folklore, the magic-man sends the Papuan black snake to kill enemies?
... that the limestone quarries near Ein Yabrud in the Judean Mountains have produced the only fossils for the extinct snakes Pachyrhachis and Haasiophis?
...that the San Francisco garter snake is an endangered species capable of digesting toxic newts but is not found in San Francisco?

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 1The garter snake has been studied for sexual selection. (from Snake)
Image 2A neonate sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) sidewinding (from Snake)
Image 3The 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 4Eupodophis descouensi hind leg (from Snake)
Image 5Innocuous milk snakes are often mistaken for coral snakes whose venom is deadly to humans. (from Snake)
Image 6Close up of a red-sided garter snake
Image 7African egg-eating snake eating an egg (from Snake)
Image 8Golden tree snake climbing a flower (from Snake)
Image 9Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 10The Indian cobra is the most common subject of snake charmings. (from Snake)
Image 11A 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 12The Binocellate Cobra(naja naja) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 13A red-sided garter snake (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 14The lateral view of a king cobra's skull showing fangs (from Venomous snake)
Image 15Common Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 16Crawling prints of a snake (from Snake)
Image 17Australia-Oceania Köppen Map (from Australian snake habitats)
Image 18Most 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 19Mouse embryo 12 day post fertilization side by side with corn snake embryo 2 days post ovo-positioning. (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 22Medusa (1597) by the Italian artist Caravaggio (from Snake)
Image 23Vipera berus, one fang in glove with a small venom stain, the other still in place (from Snake)
Image 24Reticulated python skull, showing jaw movements when swallowing (from Snake)
Image 25Diagram illustrating differential somite size due to difference in somitogenesis clock oscillation (from Snake)
Image 26Snake meat, in a Taipei restaurant (from Snake)
Image 27Eastern hognose hooding. (from Snake)
Image 28An adult Barbados threadsnake, Leptotyphlops carlae, on an American quarter dollar (from Snake)
Image 29A snaked coiled in the cavity of a tree (from Snake)
Image 30Tetrapodophis (from Snake)
Image 31Approximate world distribution of snakes (from Snake)
Image 32Snakes composing a bronze kerykeion from the mythical Longanus river in Sicily (from Snake)
Image 33Narcisse Snake Dens welcome sign (from Narcisse Snake Dens)
Image 34Snake 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 35Wart snake (Acrochordus granulatus) (from List of snakes of South Asia)
Image 36The world's most venomous snake, based on LD₅₀, is the inland taipan of Australia. (from Venomous snake)
Image 37Rod of Asclepius, in which the snake, through ecdysis, symbolizes healing (from Snake)
Image 38A common watersnake shedding its skin (from Snake)
Image 39Eupodophis descouensi (from Snake)
Image 40Dolichophis jugularis preying on a sheltopusik (from Snake)
Image 41Ballcourt 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)