Snakes are one of the most exciting animals worldwide, and they exist worldwide in nearly every habitat, and they come in various sizes and forms. Because they are so unlike other animals, snakes have one characteristic that makes them unique. Despite being easily recognizable as “without feet and scaly worms,” do we understand what makes them so unique? In this blog, we’ll look at a few more fascinating features of snake anatomy. Explore the bones, body, faces, and other parts of the snake to learn more about its anatomy.
A little about snakes
We will examine a few characteristics that cute snakes possess that set them apart from other creatures. But first, we need to comprehend what distinguishes a snake from other animals. The features that best describe snakes are that they do not have any limbs, voices, no external ears, and eyelids. On the other hand, they have long and thin bodies with one lung. More species are being added yearly, totaling over 3,500 species that satisfy these criteria. These 3,500+ species are divided into 20 families, which may be further divided into 520 genera.
Snake anatomy
The anatomy of the snakes is a little different from other animals, because their body structure is entirely different from others.
Head
Snake’s head comprises of the eyes, nose, mouth, brain, and a special sensory organ known as the vomeronasal or Jacobson’s organ. Its two apertures are located just in front of the choana, an open slit-like structure on the top interior of the reptile’s mouth. Every snake has a forked tongue. The tips of their tongues take up tiny fragrance specks in the air and bring them right up to this organ when they flick them.
Eyes
Snakes have a unique eye structure since they don’t have eyelids like most animals do. Instead, each eye has a “spectacle,” which is a transparent scale covered by a thin piece of skin. When a snake goes through the process of shedding its skin, it also sheds this spectacle. As the snake prepares to shed, the spectacle turns into a pale, opaque blue color. This stage is known as being “in the blue” among herpetologists. It is expected, although snake patterns who haven’t seen it before can think there’s an issue. Spectacles become visible just before the actual shed. It signals that the shed will soon be ready.
Ears
Although snakes lack an external ear, they have an internal ear that allows them to hear low-frequency noises between 100 and 700 hertz. A snake’s inner ear also recognizes static and dynamic positions and sound waves moving through the earth.
Vertebrae
We all know that snakes have long bodies and slender creation without limbs. It is because of the specialized skeletons they have. Snakes are vertebrates, which means they can control their bodies thanks to a spine formed of vertebrae. A snake has 100–450 vertebrae, compared to the 33 stacked vertebrae in humans. A snake may be incredibly limber and flexible thanks to the little mobility that each vertebra permits in either direction.
Ribs
The 24 ribs of the human body protect the internal organs and provide the body with a solid framework. Snakes have ribs too, but they are much larger! A snake has two ribs for each of its vertebrae. Calculating the number of ribs in a snake with 200 vertebrae, it would have 400. Snakes aren’t just lifeless lizards crawling about because of their length; hundreds of ribs serve to produce a sturdy skeleton.
Fangs
Snakeheads, which are much more renowned, adapt to injecting venom into their prey, rendering it helpless. Some snake species master the art of using their teeth to stab victims and deliver this poison, either taming or killing them. The venomous substance that can indeed be fatal to humans exists in only 7% of snakes. Nevertheless, a snake’s fangs are hollow, and venom glands connect to its head. When biting, the snake injects poison into the victim through these hollow fangs.
Teeth
Most snakes lack fangs, even though they are horrifying to see. A unique set of teeth, however, is something that all snakes possess. Snakes must find a technique to use their jaws to obtain a reasonably firm grasp on their prey since they swallow it whole. With their teeth, they can handle this. Snakes have incredibly tiny, razor-sharp teeth that are also facing backward. The victim can try to pull away, but the fangs can grasp if they grab on.
Jaws
The primary way snake jaws differ from those of other animals is how wide they can open. Snakes need a unique technique to consume their prey because they can’t chew. The biological response is to enable their jaws to expand extremely widely rather than to develop powerful jaws with grinding teeth. A snake’s mouth is effectively stretchable, allowing it to open by stretching its ligaments. A snake’s jaws can expand to an astounding 160 degrees, compared to a human’s maximum of 26 degrees.
Scales
A snake has essentially two different types of scales. More minor scales often cover the top and sides of the animal. Similar to roof shingles, they can overlap. Scales that are short yet quite broad and resemble ladder rungs cover the snake’s underside. The term “scutes” refers to these unique scales. They are essential to the snake’s ability to move and make up its belly.
Bones
A snake contains between 300 and 400 bones in total. Even though a snake has many bones, all of these bones help with mobility. Therefore, the snake nonetheless has a highly flexible body. The skull and jawbone are parts of the snake’s skeleton, as are the vertebrae that connect the ribs.
A snake is a cold-blooded animal.
In biology, the term “cold-blooded” has a somewhat different meaning than you may imagine because of a previous association. Animals with cold blood cannot internally regulate their body temperature and must rely on external mechanisms instead. For instance, a snake can bask in the sun to warm up. Ectothermy is the term for this regulatory mechanism. A warm-blooded animal, such as a human, may control its internal temperature by producing heat or sweating. The physical benefit of cold-blooded creatures is that they consume more energy than warm-blooded creatures. A snake may go for days without eating and can get by very little. The environmental range of warm-blooded species is broader, but their energy requirements are substantially higher.
FAQs
Do snakes possess a brain?
Outside of birds, crocodiles tend to have the most remarkable brains among extant reptiles, whereas snakes appear to have relatively tiny brains.
Which organ do snakes not possess?
Snakes do not have urinary bladders.
Where is the heart of a snake situated?
Most snakes have their hearts one-third to one-fourth of their length from the head, at the caudal. The seat is positioned more cranially in several aquatic animals.
How many hearts does a snake have?
Snakes have one heart. All snakes and lizards have one incompletely split ventricle and two atria in their hearts.
Conclusion
Even though we don’t fully understand snakes’ evolution, we know a few aspects that help us form a hypothesis. According to fossil data, modern snakes initially appeared around 100 million years ago. Although the precise causes are unknown, they descended from lizards that had lost their legs. Once upon a time, it was widely accepted that snakes descended from small burrowing lizards. However, recent fossil data indicate that large-bodied snakes existed far earlier than previously assumed. The two primary theories focus on the evolution of modern snakes from either land or water. Another theory claims that current snakes are from aquatic lizards. However, small burrowing lizards may represent the group’s early ancestors.
