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Prelacunal Scale
Lacunal scales are those scales that form the inner border of the loreal pit The loreal pit is the deep depression, or fossa, in the loreal area on either side of the head in pit vipers (crotaline snakes). The area is located behind the nostril and in front of the eye, but below the line that runs between the centers o ... in crotaline snakes. Usually, these scales are large and also curve outward to form the outer border of the pit. In most cases the pit opening is triangular with one apex pointing back towards the eye. It is bordered above, below and in front by one or more supralacunals, sublacunals and prelacunals respectively.Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. 2 volumes. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 plates. . References {{Reflist Snake scales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake Scales
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). 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. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamida ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loreal Pit
The loreal pit is the deep depression, or fossa, in the loreal area on either side of the head in pit vipers (crotaline snakes). The area is located behind the nostril and in front of the eye, but below the line that runs between the centers of each. It is the external opening to an extremely sensitive infrared detecting organ. The loreal pit is bordered by lacunal scales. The loreal pit also functions as part of a thermal regulating system, enabling pit vipers to maintain their body temperature. References Snake anatomy {{snake-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crotalinae
The Crotalinae, commonly known as pit vipers,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . crotaline snakes (from grc, κρόταλον ''krotalon'' castanet), or pit adders, are a subfamily of vipers found in Eurasia and the Americas. Like all other vipers, they are venomous. They are distinguished by the presence of a heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on both sides of the head. Currently, 23 genera and 155 species are recognized: These are also the only viperids found in the Americas. The groups of snakes represented here include rattlesnakes, lanceheads, and Asian pit vipers. The type genus for this subfamily is ''Crotalus'', of which the type species is the timber rattlesnake, ''C. horridus''. These snakes range in size from the diminutive hump-nosed viper, ''Hypnale hypnale'', that grows to a typical total length (including tail) of only , to the bushmaster, ''Lachesis muta'', a specie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
