Snakes: An Introduction
Snakes – few creatures have such strong feelings attached to them. Loathed by some cultures, and revered by others, snakes are an integral part of our environment. Members of the class Reptilia, there are over 2,700 species of snakes in approximately eighteen different families (Greene 1992). With such a conservative body plan, the diversity of habitats in which they thrive is astounding – from mountaintops and deserts to tropical rain forests and oceans. Some species will spend their entire lives in trees, while others may remain below the ground.
Even without legs, snakes are efficient predators. While some – like many blind snakes – feed on immobile insect larvae, others – such as the anaconda – can consume a meal as large as a caiman. Some species simply swallow their food while it is still alive. Others employ constriction as a means of subduing their prey. Finally, some kill, or at least immobilize, their prey with venom. While only a fraction of snake species possess venom strong enough to harm a human, it is this capability which makes them so strange and frightening to many people.
But before a snake can consume its prey, it must first catch it. Snakes rely heavily on chemical cues in the air – not only to locate their prey, but also to investigate the world around them. The bifurcated tongue of a snake is particularly useful for gathering up chemical cues in the air, which are then analyzed with the Jackobson’s organ. |
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| Bothriechis schlegelii (Eyelash Viper). Photograph by Wes Anderson. |
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Several groups of snakes – pit vipers, boas, and pythons – have evolved another means by which to locate their prey. These snakes possess the ability of infrared thermoreception. Essentially they are able to create an image from infrared stimulus in the environment. This unique ability – present in other animals but most highly developed in snakes – is the focus of this website. Here I seek to review the literature surrounding infrared thermoreception in snakes, and provide a summary – with a particular focus on the physiology of this ability. Links to the topics are located on the left, along with a list of references consulted during the construction of this website. |
| The author with an eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus). Photograph used with permission from Robyn Leah Bailey. |
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This web page was produced as part of a class project in the Animal Physiology course at Davidson College.
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