Here's something I wrote several years ago. Hope some of you find it interesting ---------------------------------------- A History of the Snakes Snakes have been around a few million years. The snakes that have flat arrow shaped heads, like boas, have been here much longer than the “modern” snakes with the more pointed head, like the cornsnakes. Nobody knows exactly when this changed occurred as it appears there are 50 million years separating them. Boids (boas etc.) date back to the dinosaur age as they do have 2 spurs near the vent on side of body and they are linked to what remain of a pelvis, so they did walk on legs a some point. The spurs now are used in the mating ritual to “tickle” the female during courtship, I guess this could be taken as “foreplay”, whereas the corn snake type has nothing. The majority of these snakes give birth to live young as opposed eggs laying, they are born in a yolk sac which they easily break out of, they then go their own way after their 1st shed, approx 10 days after birth, in nest/burrow. Egg layers, like corns, will coil round the eggs and incubate them, after 60 days they hatch, again stay around the nest till after their 1st shed (slough) There are over 3200 different species of snake known at the present time, there may be more, that haven't been discovered yet in the remote regions, such as the Andes. Out of those 3200 there are about 300 that are venomous the rest are constrictors. Of the 300 there are very few that are a real danger to man, OK not killers but can give a serious bite and cause a lot of problems to most people. There are 10 or so that pose a real threat to man and most of these are to be found in Australia or South America. Why they are concentrated into 2 areas it's not known, maybe it was when the land masses separated and food was scarce that they developed the venom to ensure a successful kill. Australia have the most number of venomous snakes, yet over the water New Zealand has no snakes at all, weird don't you think, Ireland is another place with no snakes. It is claimed that the most venomous snake is the Eastern Taipan, it carries enough venom in one shot to kill 250,000 mice or 10 men, why this is so, again it's not clear. The majority of people bitten by a taipan die only about 10% survive, same with the South American Bushmaster some 80% die even with anti-venom. Some snakes have taken to the water permanently that's the family of the Krait, normally they don't attack humans but a bite is deadly, all the same. Snakes have adapted to living in all climates from desert to rainforest and even to the mountains of Siberia. An animal that has been round since the dinosaurs, has no legs, doesn't see very well and has no ears, relying on heat sensing, vibration and scent to live. They are one the most successful creatures on Earth apart from insects. To own and care for one on these beautiful animals is both a privilege and an honour.
Little funky on the grammatics in places but overall, good. I would like to add a bit about the method of birthing however. As a general rule of thumb, pythons are egg layers and boas are live baring. So in general you can think of old world snakes (ie aferica, tai land australa ect) as egg lyers. For the new world (N&S america and centerial) constrictores they are mostly live baring (the few exceptions are thye culbrids corns milks and kings witch do lay eggs).
