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It is not surprising for someone who snake to wonder if it has any bones at all. After all, the animal has no limbs and is so flexible that it can squeeze prey to death or twist around a tree branch or even its own body. But a snake is a vertebrate, which means that not only does it have bones, but it also has a backbone to hold those bones together. Read on to learn more about snakes and how their bones work.
How many bones does a snake have?
Snakes have only a few types of bones compared to animals such as: mammals, but the bones they have are many in number. The number of bones a snake has depends on how big it is. A short-bodied viper like the puff adder can have about 180 vertebrae in its spine, while a long-bodied snake like a mamba can have as many as 400. Most of these vertebrae are attached to a pair of ribs.
But before we start with the backbone of this cold-blooded vertebrate, let’s start at the beginning, which is, of course, the snake’s skull. The problem with being a snake is that you are a carnivore with a very narrow body and no limbs with which to catch and hold prey. This would make eating prey difficult, even if a snake had the kind of teeth found in the mouth of a snake lions, wolves, or hyenas. So how can a legless? reptile, such as a snake, eat?
Snakes have to immobilize their prey somehow, so they pinch or poison their prey to death, although some snakes simply swallow the prey while it is still alive. This is where the flexible skull bones of the snake come in. Unlike warm-blooded carnivores, the snake does not have a solid upper jaw. Instead, the upper jaw is made up of separate bones held together by highly stretchable ligaments. These ligaments are so flexible that they can pull the bones up and out. As for the lower jaw, it has two long bones attached by stretchable ligaments attached to the sides at the back of the skull. Since the top bones can swing up and out, these bones open down and out. This allows the snake to swallow prey two to three times the size of its head.
The snake’s teeth are sharp enough to hold the prey well, but they cannot chew. As the teeth grab the prey, they work back and forth to pull it down the snake’s throat. Since this may take some time, the snake extends its windpipe out of its mouth so that it can breathe. Snakes also replace their teeth throughout their lives.
The vertebral column of a vertebrate is made up of vertebrae and the snake is no exception. In people, the arrangement of the vertebrae is complex, and with a snake it is even more so. The snake’s vertebra is a ball joint that fits into the cavity at the front of the next vertebra. The vertebrae also have bony protrusions called zygapophyses that reach to meet zygapophyses at the back of the vertebra. Most reptiles have zygapophyses, but the snake also has an extra pair located both at the back and front of each of their vertebrae. This means that each vertebra in the snake’s spinal column articulates with the following vertebrae in five places, making the joints strong. Interestingly, a single snake joint is not flexible in itself, but the sheer number of them gives the snake its amazing pliability.
Because the snake’s vertebrae are not adapted to attach to limbs or a pelvic girdle, they all look similar. All vertebrae except those in the tail and the first or the first and the second have ribs. These first two vertebrae make up the atlas, which is attached to the snake’s skull. Some snakes have a vestigial pelvis, but it is still not attached to any of the vertebrae or ribs.
The ribs of the snake are curved and movable, and the last ribs may have forks. They protect the snake’s entrails, which are long and thin like the reptile. Snake ribs are not connected to anything like a sternum like humans’ ribs, so they can expand, much like the snake’s jaws, to accommodate large prey. The king cobra is interesting because it can pull up its front ribs and extend them into a hood as a threat display.
A few snakes are born with what’s left of a pelvis. Of which pythons and boas, wire snakes and blind snakes, and snakes in the genus Anilius such as false coral snakes. In pythons, boas, and Anilius snakes, the remnant of the pelvis is seen as a pelvic spur on each side of the animal’s cloaca. The bone is covered with something like a horn. The spur is usually longer on the male, which is how some people can tell male and female snakes apart. The male sometimes uses his track in courtship and fights.
Why is it useful to have so many bones?
Having lots of bones helps this reptile be as flexible as it is. A vertebrate with far fewer bones, such as a human, cannot possibly bend and twist as a snake can. The many bones that a snake possesses strengthens its spinal column and gives extra protection to its spinal cord.
By the way, where does a snake’s tail begin?
Another thing one might wonder about is where a snake’s tail begins. Can it even be said to have a tail as its body is just one long tapered tube? But yes, snakes do have tails. As the spine gets closer to the end of the animal, the ribs get smaller. There are hoses where this is not the case, such as the rubber boa. The back of this boa is the same size as the front, and when threatened, it curls up into a ball, tucks in its head and sticks out its tail. Predators mistake the tail for a head ready to strike, and even if they bite it off, it is not a vital part of the snake’s body.
Usually the tail of the snake consists of the tail vertebrae, which are located at the very end of the body and have no ribs. The tail also has a structure called the hemal arch which is located on the underside of the tail. It joins with the vertebra to form a canal called a hemal duct, which allows veins and arteries to run through the tail. Immediately rattlesnake, the last seven or eight vertebrae in the tail are fused, but the rattles themselves are not made of bone. They are made of keratin, the same material that fingernails are made of.
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