When it comes to a tractable pet snake that’s easy to care for, look no further than the corn snake (Pantherophis guttata). Long touted, and deservedly so, as the best snake for beginning snake keepers, the corn snake nevertheless remains a favorite among veteran snakekeepers, too. Different theories exist as to why this snake, which is actually the red rat snake, has come to be known as the “corn” snake. One is because of the snake’s tendency to inhabit areas around corn storage facilities, such as cribs and silos, where it hunts rodent prey. Another theory is the name resulted because the snake’s light-and-dark checkered belly scales resemble the pattern found on Indian corn. Either reason sounds plausible, so pick the one you want to side with.

Before the explosion of stunning ball python morphs in recent years, the corn snake was already blazing the trail.

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(Nature News) – In the caves of a hilly Oklahoma ghost town, researchers have found what may be the first evidence of preserved insect remains in the mouths of fossilized vertebrates. The find is compelling evidence that early reptiles, the equivalent of modern-day lizards, fed on insects.

via Fossil evidence of early reptiles’ last meal : Nature News.

While this is quite an interesting find, it also points to a quick death. All these “amazing” finds can easily be explained by a sudden death, and then quick burial. These things which would have happened during a global flood. Yes, that flood, the one that God sent upon the Earth to cleanse it.

“It is extremely uncommon to find the remains of organisms in the mouths of fossilized predators,” says Matthew Vickaryous, who studies the anatomy of fossil vertebrates at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. “To the best of my knowledge, this is a one of a kind find.”

I do not know how many of these finds that I have read about that can be explained by the flood scenario. I mean they have found fossils giving birth! Clearly something happened, and it happened massively and quickly. Yes it is just my speculation being a layperson and not a scientist who is looking at these fossils directly. Honestly it takes more faith to believe in the evolution story than it does in the creation story. However I’m not the one trying to justify the way I live my life by claiming there is no God.

All of us at the Pet Pitch USA team would like to wish our readers and their pets a “purr”-fect “howl”-iday season!

Good tidings and well-wishes!

Terrestrial crocodylomorphs have been gracing the various postings of this blog since its earliest days and thus, I felt it would be quite fitting to throw the spotlight upon one of these magnificent creatures for the conclusion of ‘The Theatrical Tanystropheus’s first week-long ’special’. So, without further ado (boy, that’s a first!), I now present the star of today’s installment of my ‘Week Of Wonders’ series:  Sebecus icaeorhinus.

A crocodylomorpha 'family portrait'. Sebecus itself can be observed crouching down in the stream on the left (more on that later).

As per the general protocol of this space, a discussion concerning the animal’s taxonomic affiliations is in order. Though you wouldn’t know it from looking at modern specimens, the crocodylomorpha has undergone a fascinating evolutionary history featuring dozens of intriguing players which ranged from streamlined aquatic predators to turtle-crushing behemoths to stout terrestrial omnivores. Until fairly recently, the superorder was divided into the suborders Eusuchia, Mesosuchia, Thalattosuchia, and Protosuchia. However, a handful of papers published earlier this decade have since re-arranged this antiquated setup.

The crocodylomorpha's place within the sauropsida class.

Under the new system, Sebecus and its relatives have been placed within the Mesoeucrocodylia taxa, which includes the Eusuchia, Thallatosuchia, and now-obsolete Mesosuchia suborders. The group is united by the following characteristics:

-The secondary palate is expanded toward the rear.

-The vertebrae are amphicoelous (concave at both ends).

When we attempt to more specifically define Sebecus‘ taxonomic place, however, problems emerge. There simply isn’t enough space for me to describe the current state of the Sebecosuchia suborder, so I’ll send everyone to ‘Why I Hate Theropods‘ for a nice overview. In 2007, sebecosuchians were treated to a fairly extensive revision which, among other things, dissected the Sebecus genus by re-naming “S. huilensis” Langstonia huilensis, and “S. querejazus” Zulmasuchus querejazus (These updates along with several others put forth that year [see above], have effectively reduced the genus to a single species: S. icaeorhinus).

A sebecosuchian tooth

Nonetheless, the Sebecosuchia is characterized by the following traits (from ‘palaeos.com’):

“Active terrestrial predators. Tall, narrow rostrum [('snout')]; sides of rostrum tall and nearly vertical; teeth long, curved, laterally compressed  (very similar to theropod teeth) [(in point of fact, they're so similar that until the late 1930's, several paleontologists used them as evidence behind the idea that non-avian theropods had survived the K-T event)] ; 4 teeth on premaxilla; 10-11 teeth on maxilla; no enlarged maxillary teeth; teeth widely spaced, intercalate; posterior ends [('rear ends')]of maxillae meet on palate anterior to [('in front of')]palatine; broad maxilla forms sides of rostrum, and narials forms flat dorsal [('top')] portion, terminating in a premaxilla with substantial diastema; maxilla and premaxilla do not overlap; no maxillary fenestra [('holes')]; nares [('nasal openings')] face antero-laterally [('forward and to the side')] or dorso-laterally [('upward and to the side')]; maxilla and, especially, premaxilla deeply sculptured with deep pits connected by channels; rostrum widens abruptly in front of orbits [('eye sockets')]; orbit relatively small; angular and surangular large, long and strongly curved dorsally [('upwards')].” 

Sebecus skull (heavily reconstructed).

The suborder is furthermore divided into three families: the Baurusuchidae, the Bretesuchidae, and the Sebecidae. Naturally, Sebecus falls within the latter alongside Langstonia, Ayllusuchus, Barinasuchus, & Ilchunaia.

A modern Alligator modified to resemble a juvenile Sebecus.

As with many taxonomic identification systems, the characters mentioned earlier almost exclusively refers to cranial features. How, then, can we assert that Sebecus and its relatives were terrestrial predators? Well for starters, the comparatively rare limb bones (and the even scarcer articulated skeletons) of these beasts tend to bear a much greater resemblance to those of rauisuchians than to the traditional crocodilian physique (in fact, their proportions suggest that they likely severed all ties to any sort of liquid habitat). However, the skull itself offers a significant amount of evidence towards the land-based hunter interpretation, for the teeth of these crocs conform to a ziphodont mold, meaning that they’re compressed from side to side, slightly recurved, and serrated along their edges: a pattern which frequently found in terrestrial carnivores, but is rarely seen in their aquatic counterparts.

A pair of Baurusuchus square off, exhibiting the generally-accepted terrestrial crocodylian stance.

In his excellent 2002 book, “King Of The Crocodylians: The Paleobiology Of Deinosuchus”, David R. Schwimmer (not to be confused with the actor who famously portrayed a geeky pseudo-paleontologist) writes (note that, for the sake of modern accuracy, any mention of ‘Sebecus‘ should be replaced with ‘Sebecus and its kin’) (NOTE: Certain parts of the following quote are debatable and/or inaccurate. See the ‘comments’ section for details) :

“The sebecosuchids were… the last terrestrial crocodylomorphs in the fossil record, and the namesake genus Sebecus apparently survived and flourished in isolation in South America, when it was separated from both Africa and the Northern Hemisphere during much of the Tertiary period. Sebecus filled the role of dominant large predator there until the Pleistocene, when North American predators (eg: big cats) entered South America via the Central America land bridge When Sebecus went extinct, less than 1.0 Million Years ago, it was the last remaining mesoeucrocodylian below the neosuchian grade- and at the same time the last crocodylomorph below the eusuchian grade!”

May the fossil record continue to enchant us all!

Green Frog (Rana clamitans melanota)

Herpetology is the study of amphibians and reptiles. What an amazing group these critters are. Amphibians undergo an astounding transformation, growing from waterbabies into air-breathing creatures over the course of their life cycle. Reptiles include some of the most ancient of animal species. Some fascinate us, others repel us. All play an important role in their respective ecosystems.

Now there is a new blog carnival to celebrate herps and bring together interesting posts from the blogosphere in one handy location. Please visit the first carnival ever at House of Herps for encounters with some cool animals and great writers. There’s even an irreverent, but not irrelevant, clip from South Park.

American Toad (Bufo americanus)

View Ted’s (Beetles in the Bush) candidate for North America’s most beautiful lizard, the Eastern Collared Lizard that he photographed in Oklahoma. Admire Kenton and Rebeccas’ (Wild About Nature) ambassador corn snakes. Read Hugh’s (Rock Paper Lizard) book review of Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist by Leslie Anthony. This is just a tiny sampling of the great posts “packaged” on the carnival ready for you to open.

There is also information from Amphibian Ark, a conservation effort whose introduction begins: The world’s amphibians are disappearing. More than one hundred species may have already gone extinct and thousands more are threatened with extinction. Many of the threatened species cannot be safeguarded in the wild and require management away from their natural habitat if they are to persist. Aside from their obvious appeal to nearly all humans, amphibians play a critical role in the global ecosystem, provide us with important pharmaceuticals, and may act as our environmental barometers. There is simply too much at stake in losing them.

Willow House is represented by a post about snapping turtles. The frogs shown on this post were photographed here in September.

Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens)

This post profiles a selection of the more interesting flora and fauna recorded in and around Livingstone National Park. A birdlist for the area is available here. See also this earlier post on the park’s orchids.

Common Fringe-myrtle (Calytrix tetragona)

Nodding Blue Lily (Stypandra glauca)

Early Nancy (Wurmbea dioica)

Murnong or Yam Daisy (Microseris lanceolata)

Bulbine Lily (Bulbine bulbosa)

Finger Flower (Cheiranthera linearis)

Buttercup (Ranunculus sp.)

Wattle Mat-Rush (Lomandra filiformis)

Milkmaids (Burchardia umbellata)

Ivy Goodenia (Goodenia hederacea)

Common Raspwort (Gonocarpus tetragynus)

Chocolate Lily (Dichopogon strictus)

Sundew (Drosera sp.)

Shrubby Rice-Flower (Pimelea sp.)

Pea-Flower

Lace Monitor (Varanus varius)

Lace Monitor (Varanus varius), Bell's Form

Even thought I’ve been doing a lot of wildlife photography lately, I also really enjoy semi-macro photography.  I’m more interested in photographing small scenes rather than true macro photography.  Every once in awhile I think it’s a good idea to go some place that challenges you to try something different.  I had a lot of fun wandering the gardens and looking for interesting colors and patterns.  I even managed to find some small wildlife to photograph while there.

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“In the Spotlight”  -  Leu Gardens, Orlando, Florida

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“Bamboo”

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“Brown Anole”

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“Metallic Green Bee”

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“Surrounded”

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“Zebrawing Butterfly in Flight”

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The trees stand majestically, tall and proud. And the jungle feels like it’s growing with each footstep you put forward. The leaves of all the plant life feel as if they are exhaling their breath on your shoulders, whispering to you to keep walking into the depths of wonderment. You smell a faint floral perfume and musty wet dog scent accented with grassy/piney freshness all with one whiff.

There is a party going on and the conversation is rhythmic. Crickets contribute as the percussion, as the crashing waterfall provides a steady bass line. A myriad of birds of all breeds chirp and squawk their vocals. And mysterious slithery insects and reptiles hiss among the prominent raindrops which make their own music to polish off a Grammy award-winning soundtrack.

As you start to marvel at the beautiful hues of green glistening in the mist, your eyes fixate on the most exquisite and exotic blooms you’ve ever seen. The hypnotic flora will captivate you with salmon-pink scalloped edges, sunburst fire-orange and gold sprays of petals and gleaming white and magenta fringe.

And just as you are visually overwhelmed by the magical beauty you are imbibing with every dew drop of rain, humid breath and groovy jungle strum – it happens… THE BITE.

First it’s a pinch, then a sting, which progresses to the most progressive itch. Thirty-three bites later and two inches of blood-swelling puffer-fish appearing welts, you begin to understand the environment you were just in… someone else’s territory.

And you realize something profound: from a shark bite in the big blue ocean; a charging herd of cattle in the prairie, or yes, even 33 bites in the middle of the rainforest – you are a guest in Mother Nature’s home, which belongs to her children. And her children are skeptical of strangers entering their home.

It is here you are reminded just how small you really are. It is here you earn a newfound respect for the nature you take for granted and dare to trespass.
It is also here where you learn just how much we really do need to honor the gifts we have on this Earth before they are gone.

While many of you may balk at the crusaders for our planet – until you’ve personally experienced this or any other kind of magic that intoxicates you visually, audibly and yes, spiritually in a virtual 360, , do you comprehend what people are truly fighting for. They’re fighting for YOUR right to see, hear, smell, taste and feel this all for yourself… the euphoria of everything at once, along with the residual stinging and swelling as a result of the once-in-a-lifetime event. It will make you think differently and put things in a newfound perspective.

I’ve always had respect for the planet and grew up very green in a progressive household that was green back in the 70s with the first solar panels in the neighborhood. We recycled, we conserved. But this experience gave me a deeper appreciation for every bottle, can or paper I’ve recycled, every bit of water I’ve conserved, every piece of litter I’ve ever picked up, every energy-efficient light I’ve screwed in and so forth. And still somehow, it just doesn’t seem enough.
For this one opportunity to get bitten 33 times, I would say to see what I have seen, heard and what I have felt – was well worth it.

You can never underestimate the power of Mother Nature. And you can never underestimate the power that each of us have in unity to protect and preserve her and the planet.

Care for the planet, respect nature and don’t forget to grab the insect repellent.

© 2009 Queena Verbosity 100% Real Words
Media Monster Communications, Inc.
Stacey Kumagai

http://www.100percentrealwords.blogspot.com

http://hubpages.com/profile/mediamonster

http://www.braingasm.com

The first major outing involved taking a pontoon boat up the St. Johns River.  We saw an incredible amount of wildlife and I’d highly recommend this as a great way to view a diversity of animals in their natural habitat.  The highlight of the trip was spotting two manatees feeding along the edge of the river.  Due to the murkiness of the water, I didn’t get any postable photos although there are many manatee photos to come in the next post.

~ More photos from the trip can be seen on my Flickr page.

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“American Alligator”  -  St. Johns River, Florida

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“Great Egret”

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“Bald Eagle”

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“Turtles”

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“Double Crested Cormorants”

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I’m finally getting around to posting some photos from Thanksgiving in Florida.  I can’t believe how quickly December is flying by!  I had a great time visiting family and photographing the local Floridian wildlife.  It was a great time of year to be there.  We traveled quite a bit and visited several many interesting places.  Although extensive traveling certainly wasn’t required to see wildlife up close.  The following photo is one of the resident Sandhill Cranes from my dad’s backyard.

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“Sandhill Crane”  -  Volusia County, Florida

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“Brown Anole”

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Did you hear that loud thud last week? That was the arrival of the official all-get-out holiday gift-giving season crashing down among us. I was out at the stores on Black Friday, still full of turkey from the night before. The crowds were beginning, but I don’t think it was anywhere near as zoo-like as previous years at the stores. A sign of the times, perhaps, but hopefully many businesses will be okay come the end of the year.

As thoughts turn to gift giving, you may consider giving some live reptiles to someone on your list. Of course I’m typically all for the wide dissemination of reptiles and amphibians, but I did want to discuss the topic of giving reptiles as presents because there are some things to think about before doing so.

To read the rest of this blog, go here: http://bit.ly/7QgWY1

Good tidings and well-wishes!

As I’ve previously mentioned, it’s finals week here at Mesalands, and I’ve been working my intellectual butt off via a series of all-nighters and as such, haven’t had the luxury of posting very much of late. However, to satisfy the paleontological cravings of my readers, I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to a few excellent posts which have emerged throughout the blogosphere recently.

-For those of you who may have appreciated my interview with Dr. Hungerbuehler earlier this semester, Jeff Martz has posted an excellent review of phytosaur evolution and biostratigraphy. A definite must-read for anyone interested in archosaurs of any kind!

-Gombessa Girl has reminded my why I really ought to play more video games by highlighting an upcoming beauty about… are you ready for this?… Hitler’s top-secret army of Nazi dinosaurs! Words fail me.

-Scott Sampson has posted an exquisite and thought-provoking answer to the age-old question of ‘why paleontology matters‘ on his brand spankin’ new blog.

Hopefully, I’ll obtain the chance to post original material next week, as my “final Final” will be completed later today, giving me far more free time than I’ve had thus far this month.

May the fossil record continue to enchant us all!

By Columnist Harry Trunckles

For more information, be sure to check out Answers in Genesis!

I pitched my movie idea to Disney, but apparently there isn't a market for the Dimetrodon King.

These were really the worst things to find fucking around in your eucalyptus trees.

While a pet store is most likely the first place many children will see their first living-and-breathing reptiles, let’s not forget the delights that can often be found at the reptile house in a zoo. The naturalistic vivariums they typically have on display are great enough, but zoos are often the only place the general public can see certain animals. I’m talking the rare ones, sometimes endangered species, and new animals that have not yet entered the reptile hobby.

Years ago I was at the San Diego Zoo and, of course, the reptile house is my first stop when I go there (of course they make it easy, as it’s right near the entrance). There I was…

Read the rest of this blog here: http://bit.ly/84OCHt

Good tidings and well-wishes!

Aside from dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mammoths, and ’saber-toothed cats’, few groups of ancient fauna can claim strong international fan bases like the various extinct marine reptiles of the world can. You can argue that it stems from the age-old mythology of sea-serpents or that it merely extends from the human fear of the ocean’s depths, but you simply can’t deny the universal appeal of these aquatic beasties. However, as with nearly any paleontological bestiary, nothing sells interest to the general public quite like an intimidating animal of a bygone age: and with all due respect to the plesiosauria, icthyosauria, and thalattosauria (along with many others), no collection of marine reptiles proves to be quite as terrifying to imagine alive as the mosasauridae. (To get an idea of just how monstrous some of these things were, do go here).

Yet every congregation of Goliaths is sure to have its David, and to the mosasaur family, ‘David’ is known as Carinodens sp, a ‘pint-sized’ species of the Netherlands.

Carinodens reconstruction, courtesy of 'oceansofkansas.com'.

At 3.5 meters in length, it’s safe to say that were any of us to find ourselves in the company of Carinodens during a late Cretaceous swim, we’d hesitate before referring to the creature as a ‘dwarf’ of any kind. Yet when one considers the fact that certain mosasaurs may have reached 15 meters from nose-tip to tail-tip, the animal’s miniscule distinction seems appropriate.

As usual, before we can fully appreciate the eccentricities of Carinodens itself, an introduction to the seagoing critter’s phylogeny is required.

Carinodens jaw fragment.

The beast belongs to the mosasaurinae subfamily which, according to D.A. Russel in “Systematics and morphology of American mosasaurs” is defined by the following features:

“Small rostrum present or absent anterior [('in front of')] to premaxillary teeth. Fourteen or more teeth present in dentary and maxilla. Cranial nerves X, XI, and XII leave lateral wall of opisthotic through two foramina [('openings')]. No canal or groove in floor of basioccipital or basisphenoid for basilar artery. Suprastapedial process of quadrate distally expanded. Dorsal edge of surangular thin lamina of bone rising anteriorly to posterior surface of coronoid…At least 31, usually 42–45 presacral vertebrae [(meaning 'those before the hip region')]present. Length of presacral series exceeds that of postsacral, neural spines of posterior caudal vertebrae [('tail vertebrae')] elongated to form distinct fin. Appendicular elements [('those dealing with the arms and legs')] with smoothly finished articular surfaces, tarsus and carpus well ossified.”

More specifically, Carinodens is a member of the Globidensini tribe, the members of which are famous for their unorthodox dental arrangements.

Carinodens' larger relative, Globidens. Courtesy of 'oceansofkansas.com'

Traditional reconstructions have overwhelmingly depicted globidansine mosasaurs as shell-crushing oyster eaters, although it’s been suggested that cephalopods and arthropods may have been on the menu as well. In 2005, the question of what precisely Carinodens and its relatives ate was visited by the Maastricht Museum of Natural History’s A.S. Schulp, who utilized the discovery of a recently-discovered group of material to create a ‘mechanical mosasaur’ which was designed to crush various marine animals between its jaws. The experiment revealed that

“a biomechanical model of the bite force of Carinodens applied to a mechanical jaw model provides a constraint on the possible prey items this mosasaur could have processed. Echinoids, smaller bivalves, and gastropods are considered to have been likely prey items. Carinodens was probably less successful in crushing larger bivalves such as scallops and oysters which exceeded 100 mm in size. Particularly rounded gastropods, such as winkles, may not have provided sufficient grip to be crushed… The fact that the dentition of Carinodens was well adapted for crushing hard-shelled prey items does not imply that it did not eat softer food. Animals such as shrimp are quite easily processed, so there is no reason to exclude such animals a priori from the menu.”

May the fossil record continue to enchant us all!

Courtesy of oceansofkansas.com

By now most of you reading this are probably used to hearing about bill Senate Bill 373. Like H.R. 669 and other bills before it, S. 373 seeks to restrict the commerce surrounding some popular pet snakes. It has the entire reptile industry up in arms, because if it becomes law, people’s livelihoods will be affected, and perhaps outright destroyed. The United States economy is in enough of a tailspin without this bill wreaking further financial havoc.

Reticulated pythons are one of the species S. 373 seeks to add to the Lacey Act's list of injurious wildlife.

I’m not going to go into a detailed history of S. 373 in this blog. If you want additional background read some of my past blogs, as well as Andrew Wyatt’s “The Reptile Nation” blog.

The latest S. 373 development was last week, when the bill was amended on Dec. 10. This did move S. 373 further along the road toward law than any of the other reptile-related bills in recent memory that have not emerged from committee.

To read the rest of this blog, go to http://bit.ly/6e66mO

Has your pet been naughty or nice this year? Enter the Petco contest and you could win a $100 Petco Gift Card and other prizes. Prize Packs will be awarded to the winner of each of the 6 categories: Naughtiest Dog, Naughtiest Cat, Naughtiest Other Pet Type, Nicest Dog, Nicest Cat & Nicest Other Pet Type.

Prize Packs include: $100 PETCO Gift Card & select products from Pawsitively Clean by BISSELL. CONTEST DATES: Contest Submissions and Voting: December 2 – December 30, 2009. Contest Winners Announcement: January 5, 2010. Visit the www.petco.com website for full details.

Petco also offers many free items with purchase and lots of discount coupons on their website. Plus, you can enter once a day to win a $50 Gift Card in their Sweepstakes Giveaway to use in 2010.  Visit the Petco website for full details. Local Petco stores are located in Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Palm Springs.

Last week a new blog carnival was announced on the Nature Blog Network. Though there are carnivals dedicated to everything from birds to trees to deserts, reptiles and amphibians (collectively herpetiles, shortened to herps) had been overlooked. This new carnival, called House of Herps, was organized and brought to fruition through the efforts of Amber of Birder’s Lounge and Jason of Xenogere. The first carnival will be hosted at the official House of Herps homepage, but subsequent editions will be roaming, hosted at a different blog each month. The deadline for submissions for the first issue is December 15 (which is tomorrow as of when I’m typing this).

It hasn’t been warm enough for herps to be active about here since early November, so I have no recent herp encounters that I might share. Instead, I thumbed through my photo archives to see what I might be able to find. I recalled a few snakes in the summer that I took photos of but never got around to posting (there’s always lots of those). As I was looking for them, though, I stumbled across these photos, taken September 17, back when the trees were still mostly covered in green leaves, and snow was but some vague idea in the future.

They’re photos of a shed snakeskin. I found this skin threaded through the long grasses beside our front steps. You can actually tell the species of snake that shed the skin from the pattern of its scales, if the skin is sufficiently intact, but we have few enough snake species up here that just its size told me it was from a Garter Snake. Don’t ask me how you’d check the scales; I don’t find too many shed skins, so I’ve never bothered looking up how to identify the species.

Snakes are somewhat unusual in the vertebrate world in that periodically they’ll shed their entire skin. How often they do so depends on a few factors, including age of the snake, the snake’s metabolism, the particular species of snake. Young snakes, in their first year or two of life, may moult as often as once a month, or perhaps as few times as every three months. Older snakes might moult once or twice a year.

Whether the moulting allows for the snake to continue growing, in the way that an insect shedding its exoskeleton allows it to grow, is still disputed. At the very least, though, the moult allows the snake to replace damaged scales, and also to shed itself of ectoparasites such as mites. Mammals and birds are constantly shedding damaged or dead skin cells (eg. dandruff), but reptiles must periodically moult their skin to refresh it. This regular “renewal” is thought to be the reason the snake appears on the well-known symbol of medicine (the Rod of Asclepius).

I like how in the above photo you can still see the grooves of the keel along each dorsal (back) scale.

This is the head end, but the skin from the head is actually tucked inside the tube. A snake’s scales are made of a hard substance secreted from the epidermis: keratin, the same stuff that forms our fingernails. Just as our fingernails are firmly attached to the skin underneath, so too are the snake’s scales. When it comes time to moult, the snake forms a layer of specialized cells in between the scales and the epidermis. At the same time, it begins forming a new layer of scales underneath the old ones and the new specialized cells.

Once the new scales are ready to show off to the world, the specialized cells between the two layers of scales liquifies, essentially freeing the old skin from its bonds. The snake will rub its chin and nose against a rock or something else hard and abrasive to break the edge of the old scale layer. It then either finds a tight spot or something rough to rub up against, and uses that to grip the old skin as it wriggles out. Often the old skin will just peel back off the snake like rolling a tube sock off your foot, with the result that the shed skin is actually inside-out. Check out the second image again. The keels of the scales actually face into the tube, not out from.

Keratin, when formed thinly enough and softened with moisture, is actually fairly pliable and transparent. Think of your fingernails (if you ever let them grow long enough after a shower or washing the dishes. While the skin and scales are attached to the snake’s body they are kept hydrated, so they offer a softer protection than, say, the armour of a pangolin. They’re easily punctured by teeth or talon, and mostly serve as protection to the snake from pokey things in its environment such as twigs or rocks.

See how each belly scale has a bit of a backward-facing lip on it? Those help provide grip to the snake as it’s sliding across the ground, since the rest of the scale is very smooth and designed to reduce friction.

I carefully turned the snake’s head out so I could see it, but of course because the whole skin was inside out, the two jaws were reversed, with the lower jaw appearing to be above the upper one. Check out the pigment in the scales here. The eyes are actually covered by very thin, very transparent scales as well. Snakes have no eyelids, and so never blink; they rely on these thin scales to protect their eyes from damage. (For those movie trivia buffs, the snake at the zoo in the first Harry Potter movie blinks at Harry, something an actual snake is incapable of doing.)

As the outer skin is separated from the new inner skin, it will begin to dry out and lose its lustre, even before it’s actually shed, giving the snake a slightly unhealthy look. Just prior to a snake starting its moult, its eyes go cloudy blue-white, and its vision is very limited. During this period it will often stop eating and find itself a safe place to hole up until it can see again. Although the websites I checked didn’t specifically say so, I think the cloudiness is caused by the liquification of that middle layer of cells; once the outer skin has been severed and the liquified cells either reabsorbed or whatever it is that happens to them, the eyes will clear up again.

The whole process takes about two weeks. Now imagine doing that twice a year. Aren’t you glad you’ve got dandruff instead?

If you would be interested in a full-time editing position on REPTILES magazine, go here: http://bit.ly/8MoGPo