--- title: "Snakes (Serpentes) | Evolutionary Clade | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Limbless tactical predators with kinetic skull bones, heat-sensing pits, and biochemical venom. Explore 20 species in the Snakes evolutionary lineage." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/icon-512.png" --- # Snakes (*Serpentes*) > Limbless tactical predators with kinetic skull bones, heat-sensing pits, and biochemical venom. Snakes abandoned limbs over 100 million years ago, transforming their bodies into flexible, muscular hunting engines. With skulls featuring up to eight independently moving jaw joints, infrared pit organs, and advanced chemical delivery fangs, they hunt across every non-polar habitat. ## Key Evolutionary Adaptations - Jaws connect via flexible ligaments rather than rigid bone hinges, swallowing prey up to three times wider than the head. - Pit vipers possess facial loreal pit organs that detect infrared thermal radiation differences down to 0.003 degrees Celsius. - Venom cocktails combine neurotoxins that paralyze the nervous system and hemotoxins that destroy circulatory walls. ## Member Species (20 Creatures) - [Ball Python](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/ball-python/) (*Python regius*) - **Superpower**: Can detect heat given off by other animals, and survived 168 days without food in a lab study - **Musical Match**: Massive Attack (Trip-Hop & Velvet Downtempo) - [Black Mamba](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/black-mamba/) (*Dendroaspis polylepis*) - **Superpower**: Venom that attacks the nervous system two ways at once, dendrotoxins that jam nerve potassium channels plus neurotoxins that block nerve-muscle signals, backed by speeds of up to 20 km/h (12.5 mph). - **Musical Match**: Burna Boy (Afrobeats & Modern Amapiano) - [Boa Constrictor](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/boa-constrictor/) (*Boa constrictor*) - **Superpower**: Squeezes just enough to stop the prey's heart pumping blood - **Musical Match**: Earth (Sludge Metal & Abyssal Doom) - [Boomslang](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/boomslang/) (*Dispholidus typus*) - **Superpower**: A metalloproteinase-loaded hemotoxin that triggers uncontrolled clotting until the blood's clotting factors run out, paired with huge round-pupil eyes and a 180-degree gape that drives its rear fangs home. - **Musical Match**: Hugh Masekela (African Rumba & Mande Pop) - [Burmese Python](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/burmese-python/) (*Python bivittatus*) - **Superpower**: Jaws that stretch to swallow prey several times as wide as its head - **Musical Match**: Ellie Goulding (2010s Pop & Electropop) - [Common European Adder](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-european-adder/) (*Vipera berus*) - **Superpower**: Hinged fangs that fold against the roof of the mouth and inject venom - **Musical Match**: Gotan Project (Trip-Hop & Velvet Downtempo) - [Common Garter Snake](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-garter-snake/) (*Thamnophis sirtalis*) - **Superpower**: Some populations resist tetrodotoxin, the toxin of the newts they eat - **Musical Match**: Britney Spears (2000s Pop & R&B Anthem) - [Corn Snake](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/corn-snake/) (*Pantherophis guttatus*) - **Superpower**: Squeezes its prey until it is subdued, then swallows it whole - **Musical Match**: Queen (Classic Hard Rock & Southern Blues) - [Cottonmouth](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/cottonmouth/) (*Agkistrodon piscivorus*) - **Superpower**: A heat-sensing pit on each side of the face and a wide-open white mouth shown to predators - **Musical Match**: KC & The Sunshine Band (Classic Funk, Soul & Disco) - [Eastern Brown Snake](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/eastern-brown-snake/) (*Pseudonaja textilis*) - **Superpower**: A ready-made clotting engine, pseutarin C, preassembled in the venom gland - **Musical Match**: Ramones (Classic Punk & 70s Garage) - [Gaboon Viper](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/gaboon-viper/) (*Bitis gabonica*) - **Superpower**: Fangs up to 5 cm long, the longest of any venomous snake - **Musical Match**: Explosions in the Sky (Post-Rock & Cinematic Orchestral) - [Green Anaconda](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/green-anaconda/) (*Eunectes murinus*) - **Superpower**: A stretchy, ligament-hinged jaw that swallows prey whole; death comes from suffocating coils, or just as often, from drowning near water. - **Musical Match**: Sepultura (Thrash Metal & Speed Metal) - [Inland Taipan](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/inland-taipan/) (*Oxyuranus microlepidotus*) - **Superpower**: Paradoxin, a presynaptic neurotoxin that stops nerve endings releasing the signal that makes muscles contract. The whole venom is rated the most toxic of any snake's in LD50 tests on mice. - **Musical Match**: Spiritbox (Modern Metalcore & Djent) - [King Cobra](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/king-cobra/) (*Ophiophagus hannah*) - **Superpower**: Can deliver more than a gram of neurotoxic venom, measured dry, in a single bite. - **Musical Match**: A Tribe Called Quest (90s East Coast Hip-Hop & Boom Bap) - [Paradise Flying Snake](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/paradise-flying-snake/) (*Chrysopelea paradisi*) - **Superpower**: Splays its ribs and flattens its body into a triangular cross-section that acts as the lifting surface in place of wings - **Musical Match**: Sub Focus (Drum & Bass & Liquid Jungle) - [Reticulated Python](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/reticulated-python/) (*Malayopython reticulatus*) - **Superpower**: Extreme length, up to 33 feet (10 meters), plus heat-sensing pit organs that detect prey without necessarily seeing it. - **Musical Match**: Russian Circles (Sludge Metal & Abyssal Doom) - [Russell's Viper](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/russells-viper/) (*Daboia russelii*) - **Superpower**: Venom that differs significantly between five Indian regions, in composition and potency - **Musical Match**: Jinjer (Modern Metalcore & Djent) - [South American Bushmaster](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/south-american-bushmaster/) (*Lachesis muta*) - **Superpower**: Facial heat-sensing pits that let it aim a strike at a warm body within 50 centimeters with no other senses needed, backed by venom produced in quantities of up to 400 milligrams. - **Musical Match**: ROSALÍA (Latin Trap & Heavy 808s) - [Timber Rattlesnake](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/timber-rattlesnake/) (*Crotalus horridus*) - **Superpower**: Heat-sensing pits between nostril and eye that detect very slight changes in temperature - **Musical Match**: Buena Vista Social Club (Cuban Son & Trova) - [Western Diamondback Rattlesnake](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/western-diamondback-rattlesnake/) (*Crotalus atrox*) - **Superpower**: A heat-sensing pit on each side of its head - **Musical Match**: Metallica (Thrash Metal & Speed Metal) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://animaltracks.wiki/clades/snakes/#collection", "name": "Snakes (Serpentes)", "description": "Limbless tactical predators with kinetic skull bones, heat-sensing pits, and biochemical venom.", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/clades/snakes/", "mainEntity": { "@type": "ItemList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Ball Python", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/ball-python/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Black Mamba", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/black-mamba/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Boa Constrictor", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/boa-constrictor/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Boomslang", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/boomslang/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Burmese Python", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/burmese-python/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "name": "Common European Adder", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-european-adder/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "name": "Common Garter Snake", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-garter-snake/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "name": "Corn Snake", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/corn-snake/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "name": "Cottonmouth", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/cottonmouth/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "name": "Eastern Brown Snake", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/eastern-brown-snake/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "name": "Gaboon Viper", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/gaboon-viper/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "name": "Green Anaconda", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/green-anaconda/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "name": "Inland Taipan", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/inland-taipan/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "name": "King Cobra", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/king-cobra/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "name": "Paradise Flying Snake", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/paradise-flying-snake/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 16, "name": "Reticulated Python", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/reticulated-python/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 17, "name": "Russell's Viper", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/russells-viper/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 18, "name": "South American Bushmaster", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/south-american-bushmaster/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 19, "name": "Timber Rattlesnake", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/timber-rattlesnake/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 20, "name": "Western Diamondback Rattlesnake", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/western-diamondback-rattlesnake/" } ] } } ] } ```