Portal:Snakes

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

The Snake Portal

Pope's pit viper (Trimeresurus popeiorum)

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, 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

Eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius)

Coral snakes are a large group of elapid snakes that can be divided into two distinct groups, the Old World coral snakes and New World coral snakes. There are 27 species of Old World coral snakes, in three genera (Calliophis, Hemibungarus, and Sinomicrurus), and 83 recognized species of New World coral snakes, in two genera (Micruroides and Micrurus). Genetic studies have found that the most basal lineages have origins in Asia, suggesting that the group originated in the Old World. While new world species of both genera are venomous, their bites are seldom lethal; only two confirmed fatalities have been documented in the past 100 years from the genus Micrurus. Meanwhile, snakes of the genus Micruroides have never caused a medically significant bite. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

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

... that it can be hard to know which Snake is which?
... that the Voice of Freedom had to counter venomous snakes, leeches, and other wildlife?
... that Vanita Jagdeo Borade has been called the "snake woman" for having rescued more than 50,000 snakes?
... that salt marsh snakes drink only rainwater?
... that the Maloja Wind in Switzerland can produce a narrow and elongated low-lying cloud known as the "Maloja Snake"?
... 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?

edit

More did you know? - show different entries

... that the speed of the red whip snake enables it to feed largely on lizards?
... that the bite of the colourful Collett's snake can lead to rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure?
... that biologist Robert C. Stebbins published research on the sidewinder rattlesnake?
... that in 2007, three specimens of the Caspian whipsnake were found in Galați County, the first in Moldavia (eastern Romania) since 1937?
... that the Discovery Channel special Eaten Alive did not actually feature anyone being eaten alive?

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