Snakes

Some characteristics of Snakes: This group has characteristic features, but most of these also occur in in other squamates, such as limblessness. Snakes have reduced left lungs, but so do other elongate Squamates. Some snakes give live birth (viviparous), others lay eggs (oviparous). The smallest snakes belong to the threadsnakes are only <15cm long and the largest, the Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) can reach 10m. Whereas humans have only 32 vertebrae, some snakes have more than 400! Whereas legless lizards have movable eyelids, snakes have a transparent scale that can be moved over the eye. Squamates differ from other reptiles in that they she their skin regularly. In snakes the skin is usually shed in one piece. Snakes live on trees (arboreal), on the ground (fossorial), or in water (aquatic). They have well developed senses of smell, can pick up airborne and substrate-borne sound (despite the lack of external and middle ears), and some snakes can detect infrared radiation.
Currently 12 families are recognized with more than 1,800 species. Snakes are found all over the world except at high latitudes.

Some additional links on Snakes:

• South Carolina Reptiles and Amphibians
• Amphibians and Reptiles of the Savannah River Site
• The EMBL Database
• The Biological and Environmental Sciences Library- Duke University- Snakes

Literature: Heise, P.J., L.R. Maxson, H.G. Dowling, and S.B. Hedges. 1995. Higher-level snake phylogeny inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences of 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA genes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 12:259-265.

Species in brown font were observed in the ACE Basin during a herpetofauna survey in 2002- species in red font are presumed to occur there based on their overall range!

Rat Snake

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