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The skull of Python reticulatus.. The skull of a snake is a very complex structure, with numerous joints to allow the snake to swallow prey far larger than its head.. The typical snake skull has a solidly ossified braincase, with the separate frontal bones and the united parietal bones extending downward to the basisphenoid, which is large and extends forward into a rostrum extending to the ...
Snakes have more flexible jaws, that is, instead of a juncture at the upper and lower jaw, the snake's jaws are connected by a bone hinge that is called the quadrate bone. Between the two halves of the lower jaw at the chin there is an elastic ligament that allows for a separation.
Most reptiles have well-developed claws. Most lizards have toes ending in stout claws. [5] In snakes, feet and claws are absent, but in many boids such as Boa constrictor, remnants of highly reduced hind-limbs emerge with a single claw as "spurs" on each side of the anal opening.
These spurs are made up of the remnants of the femur bone, which is then covered by a corneal spur, or claw-like structure. [1] This femur derives from ancestral hind limbs found in the most recent common ancestor of modern snakes and the other reptiles of the clade Toxicofera, many of which have fully functional front and hind limbs. [2]
Since first appearing during the age of dinosaurs, snakes have authored an evolutionary success story - slithering into almost every habitat on Earth, from oceans to tree tops. Scientists ...
How the Snake Lost Its Legs: Curious Tales from the Frontier of Evo-Devo is a 2014 book on evolutionary developmental biology by Lewis I. Held, Jr. The title pays homage to Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, [1] [a] but the "tales" are strictly scientific, explaining how a wide range of animal features evolved, in molecular detail.
The Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, [3] are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific islands. Boas include some of the world's largest snakes, with the green anaconda of South America being the heaviest and second-longest snake known; in general, adults are medium ...
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