Coral Snake
Ancestory and Evolution
Body Structure
Eastern
Feeding
Reproduction
Western

Snakes Skeletal and muscle composition

Muscles

Snake musculature is very complicated, consisting of many different individual muscles and muscle cords. It is the coordinated interaction of the muscles which gives snakes their smooth gliding motion. Three pairs of long muscle cords run along the backbone, connecting the vertebrae, and these are responsible for the smooth curving of the body. There are numerous muscles on the vertebral processes, which, when contracted, bring about the tight curves or loops in the snakes body. They have muscles connecting ribs together, and vertebrae to ribs. The skin muscles, which connect scales to scales and scales to ribs, are also important in locomotion.

The skull and Skeleton

Snakes skeletons consist very simply of a skull and a number of precaudal and caudal vertebrae. The precaudal vertebrae each bear a rib but there is no breast bone, or sternum, and so the free ends of the ribs are connected to each other, and to the dorsal and ventral scales, by muscles. These are important in locomotion and in constriction. The vertebrae themselves are numerous, sometimes numbering over 400 and the number is slightly variable, even within species.

Each vertebrae has a central portion, or Centrum, which is shaped like a short cylinder with one convex and one concave end. Above the Centrum is a neural arch, an arch of bone through which the spinal cord runs. A number of spines or processes jut out from this basic structure, and these also articulate with their counterparts on neighboring vertebrae. The caudal vertebrae are simplified and do not have any ribs attached to them. No snakes have pectoral girdles.

Compared with the lizards, the skulls of snakes are far more delicate and loosely articulated. This is a result of their feeding habits. Whereas most lizards can chew and dismember their prey, snakes swallow their prey whole. This would restrict them to only small animals if it were not for the elasticity of he jaws and the skin. In the more advanced species of snakes, the bones of the skull are capable of more independent movement and the mouth can be opened much wider in order to accommodate prey that has a diameter far greater then that of the snakes head.