Animal of the week!
Hey all and welcome again to Cherry's 16th edition of
"Animal of the week". Here again are a few breif facts on this week's
animal.
This week's animal...Venomous Snakes
Opisthoglyph: These are the rear-fanged snakes, the fangs are enlarged
rear teeth with a 'groove' that venom flows down while they are swallowing the prey item. They are
mostly harmless or mildly venomous but there are two BIG exceptions. The Boomslang (Dispholidustypus)
and the Twig snake (Thelotornis kirtlandi) have killed humans before. Other good
examples of this type of snake are the Mangrove (B. dendrophila) and Hognose snakes
(Heterodon ssp.)
Proteroglyphs: These are the fixed front fang snakes. These snakes
have small non-movable front fangs. When they bite they hang on and 'chew' to envenomate the prey.
Obvious examples of this type of snake are the cobras (Naja), kraits (Bungarus), mambas
(Dendroaspis), and coral (Micrurus) snakes. These are some of the deadliest snakes in
the world.
Solenoglyph: These snakes have movable front fangs. The fangs fold back
into the mouth until they are needed. This is what makes these snakes more dangerous work with.
They can grab on to your hand like a cobra would but they can also open their mouth almost 180
degrees with the fangs extended straight out. This enables them to strike at any portion of
your body because it is more of a 'stab' than a bite. Examples include rattlesnakes (Crotalus), eyelash
vipers (Bothriechis), gaboon vipers (Bitis), cottonmouths and copperheads
(Agkistrodon)
Pit vipers vs. Old World vipers
The difference between the pit vipers and true vipers is a small pit in
front and just below the eye of the pit vipers. This heat sensing organ enables the 'pit' vipers to
hunt and strike with great accuracy even in total darkness.
Venom Properties
Venom is modified saliva. It's primary function is to capture/kill the
prey and then it also helps to digest the prey.
Some venoms are referred to as hematoxic which means that they
primarily affect the blood. Almost all american pitvipers fall into this category. A hematoxic venom
destroys tissue and is very painful.
Neurotoxic venoms attack the nervous system and brain. These may cause
almost no pain, but shut down the respiratory systems and interfere with heart functions. Good
examples of these types of snakes are the cobra and coral snakes
Snake venom is made up of about 20 different enzymes. Species
usually have 6-12 of these enzymes. These enzymes determine the toxicity of the snake and
whether it is hemotoxic or neurotoxic
Thanks to
Darrel Norris for this infofromation.
