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Biology and Origin of Snakes

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Snakes of Italy

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Animal Sciences ((BRIEFSANIMAL))

Abstract

Snakes are not unique just because they lack limbs or because they crawl and are venomous. The singularity of these animals lies in their different characteristics. Although snakes are animals with “simple” intellects, they have managed to colonize much of the land and also the seas, and their only limits are physiological, related to temperature. Their elusiveness, speed, and camouflage abilities make them contenders for survival. The anatomy of a snake, though it may seem simple and can be summed up as a long spine, is actually complex and related to the lifestyles of the different species. Such as the different types of teeth of venomous and nonvenomous snakes, for example. The snake’s origin is still something yet to be fully discovered. Fossil remains reveal it to be the Cretaceous period (145–66 million years ago). As of today, we can sum up the snake’s origin in two hypotheses: snakes originated from burrowing lizards or they originated from marine reptiles. The two theories have two quite important points in common: both in underground as well as aquatic life, reptiles must have eyelids like snakes and must not have eardrums.

For the idiot, nature is a chaos of superstition and prejudice; for the educated man, it is the sublime manifestation of our Creator’s attributes.

—Marchi (1901)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Botany, University of Camerino, Camerino, MC, Italy

    Gabriele Achille

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  1. Gabriele Achille
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Correspondence to Gabriele Achille .

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Achille, G. (2015). Biology and Origin of Snakes. In: Snakes of Italy. SpringerBriefs in Animal Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14106-0_3

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