Snakes: basics

In short: Snakes are legless reptiles that move via muscle contractions and usually swallow their prey whole. Only a small portion of the over 3,000 species worldwide are dangerously venomous to humans.

In more detail: Snakes evolved from legged ancestors and lost their limbs over the course of evolution.

In detail

• Locomotion: Various techniques such as lateral undulation or concertina-like movement adapt to different surfaces.
• Venomous snakes: Venom primarily serves to capture prey, not for defence, and is injected through specialised teeth.
• Constrictor snakes: Boas and pythons kill prey by squeezing, not venom, and then swallow it whole.
• Heat sensors: Some snake species have pit organs that detect infrared radiation from warm-blooded prey.
• Shedding: Snakes shed their skin regularly to grow and renew worn-out skin.
• Sensory perception: The forked tongue picks up chemical signals from the air and transmits them to a special sensory organ.
• Ecological role: As predators, snakes regulate rodent populations and are thus important for ecological balance (tarnung-und-mimikry-bei-tieren, amphibien-und-reptilien-ueberblick).