LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Snakes: Bodies
built 184 days ago
Snakes all have similar body shapes, though the girth can vary so much that a 5 foot long Coachwhip snake may weigh less than a pound, while a 5 foot long Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake can weigh up to 6 pounds. Snake ... do not vary much in basic body features; characteristics common to all snakes are:
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Snakes differ from other reptiles by having no legs, ears, or eyelids, and by possessing only one functional lung (the right one). The most notable characteristic of a snake is its extremely long, slender body. A snake's body allows it to effortlessly climb, swim, and slip into the smallest spaces. Although snakes lack ears and cannot technically hear, they do have the ability to detect low frequency vibrations from the air and ground. Instead of eyelids, snakes have a clear scale covering for each eye. The shedding of this scale causes the eye to cloud over for a few days, which probably led to the myth that snakes go blind during certain times of the year.
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Snakes utilize a variety of methods of movement which allow them substantial mobility in spite of their legless condition. All snakes are capable of lateral undulation, in which the body is flexed side-to-side, and the flexed areas propagate posteriorly, giving the overall shape of a posteriorly propagating sine wave. In addition, all snakes are capable of concertina movement. This method of movement can be used to both climb trees and move through small tunnels. In the case of trees, the branch is grasped by the posterior portion of the body, while the anterior portion is extended. The anterior portion then grasps the branch, and the posterior portion is pulled forward.
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As snakes have no limbs, they have adapted various methods to move on land or in water. Lateral undulation is the sole mode of aquatic locomotion, and the most common mode of terrestrial locomotion. In this mode, the body of the snake alternately flexes to the left and right, resulting in a series of rearward-moving 'waves'. When swimming, the waves become larger as they move down the snake's body, and the wave travels backwards faster than the snake moves forwards. This contrasts with terrestrial lateral undulation, in which the wave speed is precisely the same as the snake speed, and as a result, every point on the snake's body follows the path of the point ahead of it, allowing snakes to move though very dense vegetation and small openings. In aquatic lateral undulation, snakes generate forward thrust by pushing their body against the water, resulting in the observed slip, while in terrestrial lateral undulation, thrust is generated by pushing against irregularities in the substrate such as pebbles and grass, resulting in 'path following'.
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Often observed flicking it�s tongue, snakes use their forked tongue to smell the air. Snakes are ectotherms, meaning they must regulate their body temperature externally by sunning themselves or retreating to cool, shaded areas. Snakes hibernate during the winter. Snakes must shed their skin three to six times per year.
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In some Asian countries, the use of snakes in alcohol is ... accepted. In such cases, the body of a snake or several snakes is left to steep in a jar or container of liquor. It is claimed that this makes the liquor stronger (as well as more expensive). One example of this is the Habu snake sometimes placed in the Okinawan liquor Awamori also known as "Habu Sake".[50]
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