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 THE BOOK OF SNAKES
A LIFE-SIZE GUIDE TO SIX HUNDRED SPECIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

MARK O’SHEA
CONTENTS
Introduction

Evolution & diversity of snakes

What is a snake?
Prey & hunting
Enemies & defense
Reproductive strategies
Snakes & humankind

The snakes
SCOLECOPHIDIA
ALETHINOPHIDIA: AMEROPHIDIA
ALETHINOPHIDIA: AFROPHIDIA: HENOPHIDIA
ALETHINOPHIDIA: AFROPHIDIA: CAENOPHIDIA

Glossary
Resources
Index of common names
Index of scientific names
Index of taxonomic groups
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION

Snakes—almost everybody has an opinion about them, and often

those opinions are extremely polarized, with people either fearing
snakes or being fascinated by them. The sinuous movements of a
snake’s body, the oil-on-water effect of its iridescent scales, the
hypnotic movements of its elevated head, the unblinking gaze, the
continually flickering tongue, and often the serpent’s totally
unexpected and unannounced appearance, are all factors that play
into its ability to convey both beauty and menace in a single tongue-
flick.
It is no surprise that the snake has touched so many societies
throughout history and been included in countless cultural and
religious stories. By shedding its skin, it may be seen as a symbol of
renewal and long life, but at the same time it is the bringer of death.
It is likely that since humans first walked upon the Earth, the snake
has held them in its thrall, an ever-present danger in the shadows,
hidden in leaf litter, reaching out from a leafy bough, or lurking
beneath dappled waters.
So, why do so many people shudder at the very word “snake?”
Obviously, one of the reasons people fear snakes is perfectly
reasonable and natural—some snakes can, and do, kill humans.
Worldwide, up to 125,000 lives are lost through snakebites every
year. But, putting this into perspective, figures extrapolated from
World Health Organization data suggest that 1.25 million people may
have died in road-traffic accidents in 2015, ten times as many as
were killed by snakes over a similar 12-month period.
A venomous serpent striking from a leafy bough probably epitomizes the worst nightmare
for many people. Yet this Great Lakes Bushviper (Atheris nitschei) is actually a highly
specialized and wonderfully adapted predator of mammals, lizards, or frogs that only uses its
venom in defense when it feels truly threatened.
A hooding Egyptian Cobra (Naje haje) an iconic image, yet the purpose of the hood is to
warn potential attackers that the cobra will defend itself if necessary; it is trying to avoid
confrontation, not provoke it.

There are a little over 3,700 living snake species known to

science. They exhibit a truly amazing diversity of shape, size, color,
pattern, and natural history. In The Book of Snakes, I will introduce
the reader to 600 species, almost one in six of all snakes known. For
those who are unfamiliar with snakes, I aim to dispel myths and
bring enlightenment and understanding about one of the most
maligned groups of animals on the planet. For those who are already
snake aficionados, I hope to introduce rare or elusive species that
may have previously passed beneath their radar.
 In selecting which 600 species to feature in The Book of Snakes, I
went for diversity, including many of the familiar names, both the
popular, inoffensive snakes kept as pets, and the infamous, highly
venomous species that claim lives. But I also wanted to illustrate less
well-known species, from remote islands, cold mountains, arid
deserts, verdant rainforests, and the open oceans—snakes with
unique lifestyles or diets, and each with its own interesting story to
tell. Some species are so rare that we struggled to find a single
photograph to represent them. And that was the one hard-and-fast
rule: if no image was available or of sufficient quality to represent
the species at life size, then that species did not make the book.
However, thanks to the many excellent photographers who have
contributed images, we lost fewer than 30 species from the original
selection.
I hope that The Book of Snakes will appeal to both armchair
naturalists and experienced fieldworkers alike, but particularly that it
will inspire budding herpetologists of future generations to respect,
study, and protect snakes.
The little girl’s expression, her hand reaching out to explore, to make contact, both suggest
awe and wonderment directed toward the sinuous serpent, a Burmese Rock Python (Python
bivittatus), on the other side of the glass.
EVOLUTION & DIVERSITY OF
SNAKES

Snakes are elongate animals with fragile skulls and skeletons, which
may become disarticulated and separated post-mortem. It is
therefore no surprise that relatively few complete snake fossils are
available, most comprising a few vertebrae and skull fragments.

This alligator lizard, a member of the lizard suborder Anguimorpha, out of which the
Serpentes are believed to have evolved, exhibits body elongation and limbed reduction on the
road toward limblessness.

THE EVOLUTION OF SNAKES

There are two contrasting schools of thought regarding the
evolutionary origin of snakes. One theory proposed that they
evolved from a now extinct group of large marine reptiles known as
mosasaurs, which dominated the Late Cretaceous oceans. The other
theory holds that snakes have a terrestrial origin and evolved from
within the Anguimorpha, a suborder of lizards that today contains
the slow worms, alligator lizards, monitor lizards, and the venomous
Gila monster, and beaded lizards. This latter theory is the more
widely accepted, but there is still support for an aquatic mosasaur
origin.

The earliest snakes may have resembled this modern Boulenger’s Pipesnake (Cylindrophis
boulengeri) from Southeast Asia, being small species that preyed on cylindrical prey such as
soft-bodied invertebrates or slender vertebrates. The macrostomatan snakes that could feed
on broader mammalian prey probably evolved later.

The earliest snakes are now thought to date from the Middle
Jurassic or Early Cretaceous period, 167–140 MYA (million years
ago), with fossil examples discovered in England, Portugal, and
Colorado, USA. These fossil examples comprise a few vertebrae and
fragments of jawbones, but they can be readily identified as snakes
by their strongly recurved teeth, a common characteristic of modern
and ancestral snakes. Their discovery suggests a much earlier origin
for snakes than the previously accepted Late Cretaceous, 95 MYA.
Early snakes are thought to have inhabited warm, wet, well-
vegetated habitats, where they existed as terrestrial, nocturnal,
wide-foraging, non-constricting stealth hunters, preying on soft-
bodied invertebrates and vertebrates of lesser width than their own
heads. A modern comparison might be the Asian pipesnakes
(Cylindrophis). The greatest explosion in snake diversity appears to
have occurred following the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event,
66 MYA. This led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, mosasaurs, and
75 percent of all life on Earth, but it also resulted in the rise of the
mammals, a potential prey source of early snakes.
Some fossil snakes display hind limbs, including Najash
rionegrina, from Late Cretaceous Patagonia, which has a well-
developed pelvic girdle and what are believed to have been
functional hind limbs. Three Middle Cretaceous marine species—
Pachyrhachis problematicus and Haasiophis terrasanctus from
Palestine, and Eupodophis descouensi from Lebanon—also had hind
limbs. These species are grouped in the extinct family
Simoliophiidae, but body elongation and loss of limbs does not
necessarily separate snakes from lizards (see “Skeleton and Limbs”).
As recently as 2016, an Early Cretaceous fossil from Brazil was
described as Tetrapodophis amplectus. It had an extremely elongate
body and four short pentadactyl limbs, and was reported worldwide
as the first four-legged snake. But this discovery proved extremely
controversial, and paleontologists now believe that the fossil is a
dolichosaur, an extinct marine lizard-like reptile.
Early snakes were elongate animals with vestigial hind limbs, such as this fossil (Eupodophis
descouensi) from the Middle Cretaceous. Vestigial hind limbs are still present in extant boas
and pythons.

THE DIVERSITY OF MODERN SNAKES

The snakes (suborder Serpentes), along with the lizards (suborder
Lacertilia) and the worm-lizards (suborder Amphisbaenia), comprise
the order Squamata, the scaled reptiles. The sister clade (group) of
the Squamata is the Rhynchocephalia, the beaked reptiles, a once
diverse and widely distributed group of lizard-like reptiles that is now
confined to New Zealand, where it is represented by a sole extant
species, the Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus). The Squamata and
Rhynchocephalia together form the superorder Lepidosauria, the
sister clade of the Archosauria, which contains crocodilians, birds,
and extinct dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
Modern snakes are divided into two infraorders, the Scolecophidia
(worm snakes) and the Alethinophidia (true snakes). The
Scolecophidia comprises five families of small fossorial (burrowing)
snakes. Although appearing primitive among living snakes, these are
actually highly derived, having specialized considerably for their
subterranean existence.
 The Alethinophidia is divided into the Amerophidia, a small group
that has not spread beyond Latin America, and the Afrophidia, which
contains the majority of the true snakes. The Afrophidia are the “Out
of Africa” clade, because the continent appears to be the group’s
evolutionary cradle, from where it radiated worldwide. The
Afrophidia is further divided into the Henophidia (“old snakes”),
which contains the boas, pythons, pipesnakes, shieldtails, and
several smaller families of small-mouthed snakes, and the
Caenophidia (“recent snakes”).
The Caenophidia is divided into two superfamilies. The
Acrochordoidea today contains just three species of aquatic
filesnakes (Acrochordus), but once included the now extinct
Nigerophiidae and Palaeophiidae. The sister clade to the
Acrochordoidea is the huge Colubroidea, with its vast and diverse
array of ratsnakes, watersnakes, treesnakes, cobras, seasnakes, and
vipers. This superfamily comprises 11 families and more than 3,000
species—almost 82 percent of all living snakes.
A NOTE ON CLASSIFICATION AND SCIENTIFIC NAMES
Living organisms are classified using a hierarchical system. For snakes this would
be: Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Reptilia; Order: Squamata;
Suborder: Serpentes. Within the Serpentes, snakes are grouped into Superfamilies
(ending–oidea), Families (ending–idae) and Subfamilies (ending–inae). Within the
families and subfamilies are the Genera that contain the Species. A species name
is a binomial, it comprises two words, and it is written in italics with only the
generic part receiving a large case initial letter, i.e. Natrix helvetica. Names are not
necessarily Latin, but if the name comes from another language it is latinized, i.e.
the Sanskrit word “Naia,” for the cobra genus, is latinized to Naja. A trinomial name
indicates a subspecies. The name may be accompanied by the name of the
describer, and the date of publication. If the name and date are contained in
parentheses, this indicates that the name has changed since it was described,
usually because it has been moved to another genus, i.e. the Indian Cobra, Naja
naja (Linnaeus, 1758) was originally described by Linnaeus as Coluber naja.
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