REPTILES: Completely Inside#comments

REPTILES: Completely Inside#comments

The Infamous Cobra

Although several other species are more deadly, the cobra has the worst reputation of any venomous snake. This is partly because of its large size and fearsome appearance, but mainly because it comes in constant contact with people crowded Asiatic countries where few have shoes. As a result, it takes about 10, 000 lives a year in India alone.

Completely Inside

The snake’s mouth, the egg begins to pass down its elastic throat, where it will come in contact with the sharp internal spines, which will break it open. Being roughly spherical, an egg is remarkably resistant to crushing, but once pierced by the spines it will break into small fragments very quickly as it is subjected to muscle spasms of the snakes neck.

With Jaws at Maximum Gape

The snake manages to get its mouth around the egg. The pleated lining inside the mouth and the flexible tissues between the jawbones are stretched as far as they will go. The tiny, backward – pointing teeth work their way across the egg’s huge smooth dome, and the fountains of the snake’ s saliva flow freely so that the egg will slide in smooth.

An Apparently Impossible Task

Confronts the African egg eater as it opens its mouth to swallow a mountainous – looking egg with a diameter well over twice the width of its own body.

A Super Swallower

A sure way around the problem of subduing live flesh is to catch it young enough. The two – foot African snake Dasypellis scaber, shown here, has carried this solution to the ultimate point of eating nothing but birds’eggs, and has become marvelously specialized for this task. Its teeth have dwindled to nubbinds, which are useful only for gripping a smooth egg. Its jaws are loosely connected to its skull by two swiveling bones, which can be dropped down to give Dasypeltis the stretchiest mouth of any snake. In its throat are sharp projuctions sticking down from the backbone and used to rip open eggshells.

The Devices of Snakes for Subduing Food

Though limbless, sluggish and small – brained, the snake is one of the most perfectly efficient predators in the animal world. Elastic jaw joints let it accommodate any prey of reasonable size. A slim body lets it prowl or lie in ambush inconspicuously. A slow metabolism enables it to wait weeks for the right meal. If food walks by that might put up a dangerous fight, a snake can usually afford to ignore it.