Snakes And Evolution

Snakes And Evolution

How snakes became what they are now

Snakes have been on this planet for millions of years, and might be the most adapted of the reptiles. We don't really know that worthy about how they developed throughout the years (their skeletons are very fragile, so fossil records are small), but they probably appeared around the time of dinosaurs, and descent from lizard ancestors alike the monitor lizard. One of the oldest snake skeleton was found in the Saharan Desert, and dates succor to 130 million years ago.

The snake's ancestors was presumably aquatic at first, but then they got the advantage that their eggs could be laid on the ground thus making it possible for them to survive on land. A process over millions of years caused them to become burrowers, and this is probably when they lost their legs and external ear, making them well adapted for burrowing. Their eyelids were replaced with a certain scale, to protect them while digging. However, some biologists bear that this happened while they were serene aquatic, so there is some controversy about this.

Millions of years later some of these creatures emerged to the surface, and the snake as we know it today was born. These snakes were in the boidae group, today's pythons and boas, making these snakes the most stale snake alive today. In fact, pythons level-headed have remains of their hind legs, called spurs that stick out at the scandalous of their tail. The boidaes have no venom, but consume constriction to ruin their prey.

Around 40 million years ago, smaller snakes appeared who had developed further, adapted to unique areas and created modern characteristics, and these snakes became members of the colubrid group, which is the biggest snake group today. Colubrids are some of the snakes that are referred to as "original World" snakes. One member of this family is the corn snake!

At first the snake world was greatly dominated by the boidae, the colubrids were not able to prefer over the areas of the noteworthy bigger python and boa. Then the world went through a dramatic change, the temperatures got cooler, greatly reducing the number of boidaes. They could not survive in the cooler temperatures, which enabled the colubrids to spread over substantial areas, as they got to be more temperature and climate tolerant then the boidaes.

The boidaes(python and boa) were now shrimp only to the parts of the world with high temperatures, while the colubrids could survive almost everywhere. Not surprisingly the number of colubrids greatly increased, and they spread all over the world.

Over time some of the colubrids developed rear fangs. In rear fanged snakes, their fangs are at the succor of their mouths making the venom not intended as the only weapon against prey, but rather as an wait on in addition to constriction. Many people withhold rear fanged snakes as pets(for example the hognose and gardener snake), as it is rarely you win venom injection from them; you would have to pick up your hand all the plan inside their mouths for the snake to inject it.

unprejudiced to execute one thing obvious in case of misunderstanding, the corn snake (as well as the milk snake and the king snake) are NOT rear fanged. They have no venom whatsoever.

This location is about corn snakes and ball pythons, however I'll include a itsy-bitsy information about how the snakes evolved further, that you can spend for reference.

After some of the colubrids developed rear fangs, another group emerged which has been called Elapids. I only have to say mamba to do it determined that this group of snakes uses their venom as their main defense and attack. The elapids have short fangs in their upper jaw that can inject poison, and the fangs are hollow and obtain its poison from the venom gland in the snake's cheek. The elapids injects venom considerable more efficiently than the rear fanged snakes. Other members of this group are cobras, sea snakes, taipans and adders. Their fangs is basically what distinguishes this group from the colubrids, as they are otherwise very grand alike.

The snakes evolved even further, a few million years ago the group vipers began developing. Their fangs are a lot longer then the elapids. The group catch its name because most of the vipers are ovoviviparous, they give birth to live babies(not eggs) . In latin "vivo" = "I live", and "pario" = "I give birth". The rattle snake, probably the most "advanced" snake alive today, evolved from the vipers to catch un-shed skin at the extinguish of its tail that it can expend to warn predators.

To accomplish the snake's history; they developed from a monitor lizard, went through a phase of burrowing, came up to the surface leg- and earless, then developed into different groups, each with their fill characteristics. Seeing as the snakes have been here since the dinosaurs, and are peaceful thriving all over the world (except the arctic residence), snakes are one of the most adaptable and successful creature there is.