Sunday, August 19, 2012

Snake Fangs


Methods of Delivery

Their are four main types of teeth in snakes with which venom is transferred from gland to prey. While these forms seem to indicate a continual progression towards more complexity, they are misleading as it doesn't take into account the morphological variation in snake dentitions making for a paraphyletic occurence (that is they all thought up different ways to accomplish the same goal).
Aglyphous snakes

Aglyphous (grooveless) snakes lack any groove in their teeth for venom to run down. Instead the venom drips down the teeth from any available opening essentially saturating the maxillae. In order for envenomation to occur the snake must chew on it's prey which is time consuming. Aglyphous snakes include blind snakes and some colubrids.


snake


snakes native northeast florida 800x

sonoran_coralsnake

tiger_rattlesnake

venom between old young rattlesnakes 800x

venomous pit viper

venomous snake species illinois 800x

viperidae_



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