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Magnificent Meizodon
Click here to view this post in Spanish!Haga clic aquí para ver este blog en español!It isn't often that I'm sent a photo of a snake that I can't identify, but last week Alvaro Permartin found the time...
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The Unusual Soft Anatomy of Snakes
This year I had the opportunity to help my friend Lori Neuman-Lee dissect a number of Wandering Gartersnakes (Thamnophis elegans) for her research on the effect of toxic chemicals on reptile...
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Galápagos Racers
Sadly, snakes are inactive this time of year in northern Utah. With lower-than-average temperatures dipping below 0° F every night, I've had a lot of time indoors to read and daydream about snakier...
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Africa's Giant Gaboon Vipers
For as long as I can remember, I've been impressed by Gaboon Vipers (Bitis gabonica). These western African behemoths can reach 5 3/4 feet in length and over 14.5 inches in girth, and weigh up to 25...
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Malagasy Leaf-nosed Snakes
Langaha madagascarensis maleMadagascar has been called the "eighth continent" as a result of its large size, unique habitats, and high faunal and floral (not to mention cultural and linguistic)...
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Screech Owls and Blindsnakes: An Unlikely Mutualism
Adult Eastern Screech Owl at a nest boxIn the 1970s and 80s, a pair of biologists at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Fred Gehlbach and Robert Baldridge, were studying screech owl nesting ecology....
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Non-toxic venoms?
This article is part of a series highlighting new research in snake biology presented by herpetologists at the World Congress of Herpetology VII in Vancouver, British Columbia. If you want to learn...
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Fea's Viper
Leonardo FeaLate one spring night in 1887 in the Kakhyen Hills of Burma, 35-year-old Italian explorer Leonardo Fea crested a karst outcrop and entered a bamboo thicket. He barely noticed the rain,...
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Spider-tailed Adders
This species was brought to my attention about two years ago by a friend who, like me, was working on completing her Master's thesis at that time. In the post-script of her message, titled 'Probably...
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Hot-spring Snakes
Everyone likes a good soak in a hot spring now and again, but imagine spending your whole life in one! Now imagine being the size of a pencil and unable to regulate your own body temperature, and...
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Basics of Snake Taxonomy
A while back, medical-doctor-turned-snake-blog-post-translator-extraordinaire1 Alvaro Permartin asked me to write an article covering basic snake taxonomy. Taxonomy is the branch of biology that deals...
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What the State Snakes Should Be: Part I
The 50 United States have various state symbols, including state trees, flowers, songs, drinks, and even fossils. Just over half the states have a state reptile, and none have a state snake (although a...
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What the State Snakes Should Be: Part II
Several weeks ago, I debuted Part I of 'What the State Snakes Should Be', inspired by 'The State Birds: What They SHOULD Be' from thebirdist.com. With apologies for the late follow-up (I've been on...
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Pelagic Sea Snakes and the animals that live on them
Click here to read this article in Spanish!Haga clic aquí para leer este artículo en español!This overdue post was inspired by the symposium ‘‘New Frontiers from Marine Snakes to Marine Ecosystems’’...
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Dragonsnakes
This post will soon be available in Spanish!Head of Xenodermus javanicusOne of the weirdest-looking snakes in the world is Xenodermus javanicus, also called the Javan Tubercle Snake, Javan Mudsnake,...
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Basics of Snake Fangs
Solenoglyphous fangs of a Gaboon ViperSnake fangs are specialized, elegantly modified teeth. Some are like hypodermic needles, others are more like water slides. But all serve essentially the same...
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50,000 Hits & Snakes from Florida
Click here to read this post in SpanishHaga clic aquí para leer este blog en españolBrown Anole (Anolis sagrei)The purpose of my tripThis week I am in northeast Florida collecting lizards for my PhD...
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How snakes see through closed eyes
Early American symbols depicting rattlesnakes:(top) Rattlesnake on the $20 bill issued in 1778 by Georgia. The Latin motto (Nemo me impune lacesset) means, "No one will provoke me with...
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Snakes that polish their scales, and why they do it
Click here to view the Spanish translation of this article!Haga clic aquí para ver la traducción al español de este artículo!Psammophis schokari eating a lizard, Phrynocephalusmystaceus, in KazakhstanI...
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Identifying snake sheds, part III
Click here to view this post in Spanish!Haga clic aquí para ver este blog en español!I noticed that a huge proportion of the hits on this site are for the posts about identifying snake sheds (parts I...
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