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Are there any countries without snakes?
Click here to read this post in SpanishHaga clic aquí para leer este blog en españolGlobal distribution of all snake species combinedPublic domain from WikipediaTerrestrial data from Ernst & Ernst...
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Snakes that are Good Parents
This article will soon be available in SpanishAlmost all mammals and birds care for their young to some extent, but most amphibians and reptiles do not. We tend to think of snakes as particularly...
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Life is Short but Snakes are Long 2015 Milestones
Click here to read this post in SpanishHaga clic aquí para leer este blog en españolDear reader,Instead of debuting my planned new content for this month, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for...
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Bushmaster
This post will soon be available in SpanishBushmaster (Lachesis muta) from PeruLachesis is the name of one of the three Greek Moirai or Fates, sister-deities who determined the destiny of every human...
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Dragonsnakes and Filesnakes Revisited
This post will soon be available in SpanishI've written about both filesnakes (family Acrochordidae) and dragonsnakes (part of the family Xenodermidae1) before. Traditional snake taxonomy suggests...
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State Snakes, Linnaean Names, and Other Recent Updates
As I wrote in December, the demands of completing my dissertation (and my new position as a science reporter with Utah Public Radio) haven't left me enough time to write the more in-depth long-form...
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Even snakes have their charismatic megafauna
This post will soon become available in Spanish.Bitis harennaFrom Gower et al. 2016Last year, I wrote about the 10,000th reptile and the 3,500th snake species to be described by scientists. The pace...
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Rattlesnake Roundups Revisited
This article will soon be available in SpanishA chalkboard at the 2016 Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup,showing that a record number of pounds of snake hadalready been bought and sold by the second day,...
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Virgin Birth, the Color of Fossil Snakes, and More Recent Updates
This post will soon be available in SpanishAs I did in March, I wanted to highlight some recent and exciting updates to some of my older articles.Snakes That Give Virgin BirthPhylogenetic pattern of...
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What the Provincial Snakes of Canada Should Be
This post will soon be available in Spanish!In case, like many Americans, you need a mapHappy Canada Day! And indeed there is a lot to celebrate, in particular Canada's new liberal government and the...
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Why snakes are long (and other recent updates)
This post will soon be available in Spanish A Western Hog-nosed Snake (Heterodon nasicus)depredating a turtle nest in NebraskaAs I did in March and June, I wanted to highlight some recent and exciting...
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Xenophidion: The Snake with the Mystery Penis
This post will soon be available in SpanishXenophidion schaeferiFrom Das 2010, painted by Szabolcs KókayFor a combination of phylogenetically distinct, taxonomically confusing, and poorly known, you...
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Snakes with feet, anti-goo saliva, and more recent updates
This post will soon be available in SpanishMore of the latest snake news and research (for other recent updates, see posts from March, June, and August)—and, perhaps the most exciting news of all is...
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Galápagos Racers: answers to your questions about the BBC Planet Earth II...
This post will soon become available in SpanishGalápagos Racers (Pseudalsophis occidentalis)on Fernandina Island, from the BBC's Planet Earth II footageIf you haven't seen the incredible footage of the...
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Life is Short but Snakes are Long 2016 Milestones
Dear reader,Screenshot from 15 November showing Blogger's estimatethat Life is Short but Snakes are Long reached one millionviews, which is probably a bit too optimistic.As I did last year, I want to...
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Do snakes have a third eye?
This post will soon be available in SpanishLimerick written by Annie Simminger about her nephew,Richard Marshall Eakin, and published in his 1983 book The Third Eye.Eakin and Robert C. Stebbins...
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Shield-tailed snakes (Uropeltidae)
This post will soon become available in SpanishEsta publicación pronto estará disponible en españolLarge-scaled Earth Snake (Uropeltis macrolepis)Shield-tailed snakes (family Uropeltidae) are poorly...
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Snakebite, antivenom research, and basic science
Soon available in SpanishPronto disponibile en EspañolIn the past few weeks, a peculiar congruence of several seemingly-unrelated events took place. (At least) two new scientific papers about snake...
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The 21st century blindsnake revolution
This post will soon become available in SpanishBrongersma's Wormsnake (Amerotyphlops brongersmianus),a widespread species from South AmericaBlindsnakes (Scolecophidia) don't get enough attention. They...
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Snakes of Morocco
Earlier this month I went to Morocco to attend the 5th Biology of the Vipers conference. The conference was organized by Fernando Martínez-Freiría and Soumia Fahd and featured a fantastic three-day...
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How many snakes are venomous and how many are constrictors?
This post will soon be available in SpanishData from all 3,631 living species of snakes in The Reptile Databaseas of April 2017. I made the assumption that prey-killing behaviordidn't vary within...
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Life is Short but Snakes are Long 2017 Year in Review
Dear reader,Life is Short but Snakes are Long turned 5 years old in April, and reached 1 million views on June 26th, 2017. I celebrated with a month-long recapitulation of the "best-of" on Twitter in...
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Basics of snake skulls
This article will soon be available in Spanish!Snakes have a lot more bones than we do, but they have a lot fewer types of bones. Aside from a few boas, pythons, pipesnakes, and blindsnakes with...
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The House Snake Mess for Dummies
This article will soon be available in SpanishInspired by Mike Van Valen's "The Ratsnake Mess for Dummies"Please note that the information in this article is current as of March 2018 (no later)Please...
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Venom resistance in kingsnakes
A kingsnake eating a western diamondback rattlesnakeKingsnakes get their name because they eat other snakes, including venomous snakes like copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes. They also eat...
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