Snake Types
There are 2700 species and subspecies of Snakes in the world. As a group, they lack legs, hearing, and movable eyelids. Having evolved from lizards, some snakes still possess skeletal remnants of legs. Snakes have a large number of vertebrae (180 to 435), most of which have ribs attached. There are 4 families of snakes: Boidae (boas and pythons), Colubridae (racers, garter snakes, rat snakes and many others), Elapidae (cobras, mambas, and their relatives), Viperidae (rattlesnakes and other vipers).
Reticulated Python - Indonesia - Source: David Barker
The facts about the longest and biggest snakes are very fuzzy, with many unsubstantiated claims. The world's longest snake (by reliable documentation) is the Reticulated Python, with a maximum length of, perhaps, 35 feet or more. Update - Largest snake fossil remains found - Titanoboa was 13m (42ft) and lived in the rainforest of north-east Colombia 58-60 million years ago. The snake was so wide it would have reached up to a person's hips, say researchers, who have estimated that it weighed more than a tonne.
Very large female pythons may lay over 100 eggs at a time. Female pythons wrap their powerful bodies around their eggs until they are ready to hatch. This behavior is known as brooding and it prevents the eggs from getting too warm or too cool. The eggs need to remain close to 89 degrees Fahrenheit during the incubation period, which lasts about eighty-five days. The young pythons emerge by cutting a slit in the eggshell with their egg tooth.
Reticulated Python - Oklahoma - "Fluffy" - 24 feet, 310 pounds - Source: Bob Clark
Anaconda
The largest snake in the world, by weight atleast, is the Anaconda, or Eunectes murinus, of South America. Green Anacondas, also known as water boas, are considered to be the heaviest. The biggest snakes of these species can grow to be up to 35 feet long and can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Their camoflage coloring makes them very difficult to spot in their natural habitat and snakes this large are very rarely seen but claims of snakes 60 to 150 feet have been made.
Green Anaconda
Snakes are the world's most effective natural control on rodent population. Owls do a good job too, much better than cats.
Rhinoceros Viper
The rhinoceros viper is one of the three species of puff adders. The reason these venomous snakes are called puff adders is that, when excited, they have the ability to enlarge their size considerably by inflating their bodies. This creates the "puffed" look that can be approximately twice it's normal size. These adders also make a sort of hissing noise through their nose as part of their respiratory function.
Gaboon Viper - Bitis gabonica - Source: Jess Jones
The natural habitat of the Gibbon Viper is along the equatorial belt of Africa. Because of their skin color and pattern they are difficult to spot. They may appear sluggish but are capable of attacking their prey with suprising speed.
Black Tailed Rattlesnake - Crotalus Molossus Molossus - Source: Jeff Miller
You can't tell the age of a rattlesnake by counting its rattles because it gets a new rattle each time it sheds its skin, which can occur 1 to 6 times per year.
Albino Labyrinth Burmese Python
Most snakes can swallow prey that is 3 times or more their own body diameter.
Green Mamba
Western Terrestrial Garter Snake - Source: William Flaxington
Garter snakes do not lay eggs. Unlike most other snakes, they bear live young.
Jungle Carpet Python
Eastern Kingsnake - Lampropeltis Getula Getula - Source: John White
This Eastern Kingsnake is attempting to kill a garter snake. The snake was rescued by the photographer.
Coral Snake
Thai King Cobra
This photo was taken at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute and Snake Farm in Bangkok, Thailand in 2008. See more about the 2005 Grand Snake Theft at this same snake farm. See more cobras or "naja" below.
Wikipedia excerpt for "Snake":
Snakes are elongate legless carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with many more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. In order to accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca.
Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica and most islands. Fifteen families are currently recognized comprising 456 genera and over 2,900 species. They range in size from the tiny, 10 cm long thread snake to pythons and anacondas of up to 7.6 metres (25 ft) in length. The recently discovered fossil Titanoboa was 13 meters (43 ft) long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards during the Cretaceous period (c 150 Ma). The diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene period (c 66 to 56 Ma).
Most species are non-venomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than self-defense. Some possess venom potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Those which are non-venomous either swallow prey alive or kill it via constriction.
See full Wikipedia Snake article
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