Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Pelvic spurs (also known as vestigial legs) are external protrusions found around the cloaca in certain superfamilies of snakes belonging to the greater infraorder Alethinophidia. [1] 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 ]
X-ray showing the skeleton of Typhlonectes (Typhlonectidae). Caecilians' anatomy is highly adapted for a burrowing lifestyle. In a couple of species belonging to the primitive genus Ichthyophis vestigial traces of limbs have been found, and in Typhlonectes compressicauda the presence of limb buds has been observed during embryonic development, remnants in an otherwise completely limbless body. [7]
The term spur is sometimes used to describe the pelvic spur, vestigial limbs found in primitive snakes, such as boas and pythons and in the striped legless lizard. [3] [4] The spurs primarily serve as holdfasts during mating. As these form at the terminal end of the limb, they may properly be claws rather than true spurs.
Monocercomonas is an anaerobic organism that doesn't digest wood despite being found in wood-eating organisms; it is possibly a parasite for snakes, as it was found in abundance in sick snakes guts as well as other organs (lungs and oviducts) and was associated with mortality of the snakes. However it was also found in healthy animals.
All snakes are strictly carnivorous, preying on small animals including lizards, frogs, other snakes, small mammals, birds, eggs, fish, snails, worms, and insects. [ 26 ] : 81 [ 27 ] [ 101 ] Snakes cannot bite or tear their food to pieces so must swallow their prey whole.
While many of these "stem-snakes" are known from Mesozoic fossils, some of them may be descendants of the earliest true snakes rather than more primitive lineages. Below is a cladogram modified from a study by Wilson et al. (2010), which found many stem-snakes of other studies to be true snakes instead.
Tiny worms behave more like snakes. Research on the worms began more than 15 years ago at Sam Houston State University when Patrick J. Lewis, a professor there, led a research trip to Botswana ...
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 ...