![]() ![]() ![]() But snakes have four other types of movement. 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. Snakes have five forms of locomotion. Imagine a snake moving through the grass. The chemicals in their digestive track will do all the work and break down the food once ingested. ![]() Instead, snakes have very flexible lower jaws which allows them to eat animals who are 75% - 100% larger than their own head. Snakes’ 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. They have a forked tongue and multiple receptors able to pick up different amounts of chemical cues. Their smell is quite excellent and has also been described as “smelling in stereo”. Snakes 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. The membrane is called the “brille,” which in German means glasses. Instead of eyelids they have a thin membrane attached to each eye to protect them. Snakes don't have eyelids. This means they don’t blink and have to sleep with their eyes wide open. Snakes living in especially colder climates have live births because the eggs wouldn’t survive outside. Not all snakes lay eggs. You might have learned in school that reptiles are different from mammals because they lay eggs. While approximately 70% of snakes lay eggs, others don’t. Unlike mammals and birds that are able to internally regulate their body temperature, reptiles need to use sources of heat, like the sun, to warm up. The accurate term is “ectothermic,” meaning their body temperature is variable and regulated by external sources. Snakes are “solar-powered” and rely fully on external heat or light sources. Reptiles sometimes get labelled “cold-blooded” but this is incorrect as their blood isn’t actually cold. There are no land snakes in Aotearoa New Zealand. They are divided into 30 different families and numerous subfamilies. Image by Marius Masalar on UnsplashĪccording to the latest count, there are 3,789 snake species, making them the second largest group of reptiles after lizards. Written with extraordinary acuity, sensitivity, and openness, it is fascinating from first to last, rich with unparalleled insight into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.Top image: Green Tree Python. It is also an anthropological investigation, an adventure story, and a riveting memoir of a life profoundly affected by exposure to a different culture. Over three decades, Everett spent a total of seven years among the Pirahã, and his account of this lasting sojourn is an engrossing exploration of language that questions modern linguistic theory. Everett became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications, and with the remarkable contentment with which they live-so much so that he eventually lost his faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them. They have no concept of war or of personal property. What he found was a language that defies all existing linguistic theories and reflects a way of life that evades contemporary understanding: The Pirahã have no counting system and no fixed terms for color. Daniel Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977-with his wife and three young children-intending to convert them. ![]()
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