Snakes are reptiles that look like lizards and have the ability to go anywhere. Snakes can also climb high-rise buildings and trees. It is a long creature that moves in circular patterns from one location to another. A snake’s tongue is forked and flicks in and out on a regular basis. Snakes come in a variety of sizes, ranging from small to large. Some snakes are so poisonous that they can kill anyone. Snake venom is also used in a variety of medicines. So here are 45 facts about snakes that will astonish you.
- Snakes are carnivores reptiles and swallow their prey fully intact as they can not chew. They do this with the help of their flexible jaws, which allow them to swallow their prey bigger than their head.
- A snake skeleton consists of a skull, ribs, vertebrae, with only vestigial remains consists of the limbs.
- A skeleton of a skull consists of skulls, vertebrae, ribs.
- Snakes have about 200-400 vertebrae with as many ribs attached to them!
- The snakes which contain venom has special glands and teeth to inject venom into their prey.
- Snakes’ lifespan can vary from Snake to Snake, but they can live about 100 years in the wild. While some snakes can live up to 170 years in captivity.
- Snakes have very powerful acids in their stomachs that if it is given an Alka-seltzer tablet, it will explode to death.
- The stomach acids that are found (pepsin) in a snake’s stomach can digest teeth’s and bones but not hair or fur.
- Some species of snakes can survive for two years without a meal.
- When starving for food, some snakes digest their own heart.
- The oldest known snake fossil Tetrapodophis had four feet.
- The venom of the snake developed and evolved from saliva. The venom originated from Toxicofera around 170 million years ago and then diversified into the broad variety of venoms that are found today.
- The Olive Sea Snake has light sensors in its tail so that it can verify that its entire body is hidden.
- The world’s shortest snake is the Barbados threadsnake which is just four inches long and often mistaken for as an earthworm.
- Snakes use to shed their skin two to four times a year. Researchers believe that dinosaurs may have done the same.
- Unlike most species of snakes, Anacondas give birth to live young instead of laying eggs.
- The green anaconda is the largest snake on the planet as per its length-to-weight ratio. It can weigh around 550 pounds (250 kg) and can grow up to 30 feet long.
- The Inland Taipan or western taipan snakes found in east-central Australia have four times more toxic venom than their cousins, like Indian cobra or rattlesnake. It stands as the most venomous snake in the world.
- When snakes are born with two heads, it is called dicephaly. This happens once in the birth of 10000 snakes in captivity, whereas in the wild, it happens once in 100000 births. When they hunt for food, both of the heads fight for each other’s food.
- Most snakes have six rows of teeth, two rows on each side of the upper jaws, .and one row on each side of the lower jaws.
- Snakes and lizards smell with their tongues. They flick their tongues in the air to capture the scent particles.
- Belcher’s sea snakes are one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. A single drop of this snake venom is capable of killing 1800 humans. The bite of this snake causes extreme vomiting, migraines, nausea, intense abdominal pain, and even paralysis.
- Some sea snakes can breathe through their skin and allow them to dive deep for long in waters.
- Snakes are immune to their own poison. They can break down the venom in their stomachs when they eat a prey infected with its own venom, and thus the venom does not mix with their bloodstream.
- There are no snakes in New Zealand. Some more places where there are no snakes are Antarctica, Iceland, Ireland, and Newfoundland.
- Snakes do have ears just like other reptiles, they do not have external ears, commonly referred to as ear flaps, but instead, they have small holes just behind their eyes which acts as an opening for their internal ears.
- Snakes used in Snake charming performances respond to movements, not to the sounds of bean or pungi.
- The longest snake ever captured and kept in captivity is a python measured at about 49 feet and weighed over 983 pounds(446 kg).
- Garter snakes are not venomous, but the Mexican Garter Snake has glands that produce a foul-smelling musk that is released when they feel threatened.
- Snakeskin is smooth and dry. Their skin is made up of scales and strong material, just like our fingernails. These scales are watertight and keep the moisture in so that the snakes do not dry out in the heat.
- Coral snakes are highly venomous but not usually aggressive; they bite only as a last resort.
- Snakes don’t have eyelids. So that means they cannot blink their eyes and sleep with their eyes open.
- A snake’s eye scales are a part of its skin. This means that when they shed their skins, they shed their eye scales as well.
- Africa’s black mamba is considered as the fastest snake in the world. This species can move 4.32 to 5.4 meters per second (10-12 mph, or 11-19 km/h) over short distances, which is much faster than many other snakes.
- The “caduceus,” the traditional medicinal emblem of two serpents wrapped around a staff-originates from an ancient Greek myth in which snakes revealed to humans the practice of medicine.
- There’s an Island in Brazil where civilians are forbidden to go: it has up to 5 snakes per square meter.
- An estimated 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes each year, with up to 2.7 million get recovered. Around 81,000 to 138,000 people die every year because of snake bites.
- A boomslang venom bite can cause humans to bleed from all the holes of the body.
- Snakes can tend to open their mouth up to 150 degrees.
- The top ten deadliest snakes are found in Australia.
- 51% of Americans have fear from snakes, most than any other thing in the world.
- There are about 3000 species of snakes in the world, out of which only 15% are considered to be dangerous.
- The honey badger, hedgehog, the mongoose, the opossum, the secretarybird, and a few other birds that feed on snakes, are known to be immune to a dose of snake venom.
- Snakes can hear frequencies of up to 80-600 Hz, while some species can hear up to 1000 Hz. Whereas humans hear 20-20000 Hz.
- Snakes are cold-blooded, and some snakes have infrared vision (heat vision), which helps them to catch a warm-blooded animal.
