To help with this, the teeth curve backwards into their mouth, so that their tips point towards the back of their throat. More interestingly, since anacondas rely on constriction to kill their prey, what do they need so many teeth for anyway?Īnacondas use their teeth to hold prey in place, whilst they get the rest of their body coiled around them and ready to squeeze. But, it’s a pretty specialized point that not many people are worried about. Some biologists argue that this weaker kind of attachment means they are not ‘true teeth’ at all. This means they are dislodged more easily, but also that they can continuously regrow if lost. Unlike our teeth which are firmly rooted inside our jaw bones though, snake teeth are only relatively loosely attached to the inside face of the jaw bone. Their teeth are made out of the same tissues as ours: hard enamel on the outside, dentin under that, and a core of soft pulp with a blood supply and nerve endings. This sets them apart from the venomous snakes, which have grooves in their teeth for delivering venom into their prey. Yes – they have over up to 100 aglyphous teeth, arranged in four rows at the top and two rows at the bottom. But where do their teeth factor into the hunting strategy of these enormous snakes? And what about venom – don’t snakes use venom to hunt? Do Anacondas Have Teeth? Job done, this mighty snake can then open its flexible jaws wide enough to swallow the prey whole. They kill prey by wrapping their body around it and squeezing until their unlucky meal asphyxiates. Smaller but no less formidable species are the:Īll of them are ambush predators and good swimmers. Which makes them the second largest snake in the world, after the reticulated python. Amazingly, the largest species of anaconda, the green anaconda, can reach up to 30 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds. The word boa translates to mean “large serpent.” So we know these snakes are large – more than large. But it is not just any type of snake – they are boa constrictors.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |