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Snakes

Cool Finds

In Microgravity, Some Snakes Tie Themselves in Knots, Others Attack Themselves

Some animals just don’t know how to deal when gravity goes away

University of Sao Paulo researcher Marcio Martins holds one snake while watching another, a deadly venomous snake living only on Queimada Grande Island, Atlantic Forest, Brazil.

This Terrifying Brazilian Island Has the Highest Concentration of Venomous Snakes Anywhere in the World

Brazil’s Ilha de Queimada Grande is the only home of one of the world’s deadliest, and most endangered, snakes

The Clarion nightsnake, brought into the scientific light at last.

New Research

Written Off as a Figment, the Mysterious Clarión Nightsnake Reemerges after Nearly 80 Years

The snake was discovered on a remote Mexican island in the 1930s, but the notes of the famous naturalist who documented it were later called into question

Python

Trending Today

Florida Gives Up on Beating Back Python Invaders

Pythons in Florida are invasive predators that aren’t going anywhere

A yellow-bellied sea snake stranded on a beach in Costa Rica.

New Research

Some Sea Snakes Can Go Seven Months Without Drinking Water

To survive the dry season, yellow-bellied sea snakes severely dehydrate until the wet season brings freshwater for them to lap up from the ocean’s surface

New Research

Flying Snakes Glide Through the Air Like Mini-Tornadoes

Researchers are getting closer to understanding the physics behind this impressive reptilian feat

Ancient Reptiles Kept Switching Between Laying Eggs And Giving Birth to Live Babies

Colder temperatures seem key to triggering the switch to live births

Titanoboa, pictured with a dyrosaur and a turtle, ruled the swampy South American tropics 58 million years ago.

How Titanoboa, the 40-Foot-Long Snake, Was Found

In Colombia, the fossil of a gargantuan snake has stunned scientists, forcing them to rethink the nature of prehistoric life

A replica model of the 45-foot-long snake thought to be of Anaconda descent

Snake Found in Grand Central Station!

Sculptor Kevin Hockley unveils his fearsome replica of Titanoboa

How do boa constrictors know when to stop constricting?

Boa Constrictors Get a Feel for Their Prey

What makes a snake stop squeezing? We do science to prove ourselves wrong, because the answer people predicted is not the correct answer

South Florida has a problem with giant pythons as demonstrated here by a ranger holding a Burmese python in the Everglades.

Attack of the Giant Pythons

The Smithsonian’s noted bird sleuth, Carla Dove, eyes smelly globs to identify victims in Florida

ball pythons

Five Giant Snakes We Should Worry About

The world's largest snake—42 feet long and weighing 2,500 pounds—turned up in a Colombian jungle.

From the Castle: Big Snakes

Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute publish their amazing find of Titanoboa, the world’s largest snake

Burmese python

CSI Action Is for the Birds - and Pythons

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Python Invasion?

Burmese pythons move into the Everglades

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Islands for Snakes

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Serpent Surprise

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The Belled Viper

Even hunters of timber rattlers now admit that these snakes are shy, placid — and very fragile

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If It Moves, Grab It, but Try Not to Get the End That Bites

That’s the advice researchers in Venezuela give volunteers who help them find and collect specimens of the world’s biggest boa

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