4. Snakes don't have eyelids
Ever wondered why snakes might give you an eerie feeling? They don’t have eyelids! This means they don’t blink and have to sleep with their eyes wide open. Instead of eyelids they have a thin membrane attached to each eye to protect them. The membrane is called the ‘brille,’ which in German means glasses.
5. They smell with their tongues
Snakes do have nostrils, but they don’t use them to smell. Instead they have evolved to smell with their tongue and by using their Jacobson’s organ in the roof of their mouth. Their smell is quite excellent and has also been described as “smelling in stereo”. They have a forked tongue and multiple receptors able to pick up different amounts of chemical cues.
6. Their table manners are different than ours
When snakes are eating, they can’t help but to swallow their food whole because they can’t chew. Instead, snakes have very flexible lower jaws which allows them to eat animals who are 75% - 100% larger than their own head. The chemicals in their digestive track will do all the work and break down the food once ingested.
7. Snakes have 5 forms of locomotion
Imagine a snake moving through the grass. What do you picture? The well-known s-movement? This wouldn’t be surprising, because this is the most common form of locomotion in snakes, also known as lateral undulation. But snakes have four other types of movement. Arboreal snakes, for example, use a form of locomotion which uses seven times more energy, called concertina. There is even a special locomotion used for when a snake tries to escape on a smooth surface, known as slide pushing.
Photo by Marius Masalar on Unsplash