Snakes

When snakes are eating, they can’t help but to swallow their food whole because they can’t chew. Instead, snakes have very flexible lower jaws which allows them to eat animals who are 75% - 100% larger than their own head. The chemicals in their digestive track will do all the work and break down the food once ingested.

Most snakes live on land, but about 70 species of snakes live in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Despite looking similar to their land-dwelling cousins, sea snakes are fully adapted to aquatic life and cannot move on land. The only exception is sea kraits (Laticauda), but they still have minimal land mobility.

Snakes do have nostrils, but they don’t use them to smell. Instead they have evolved to smell with their tongue and by using their Jacobson’s organ in the roof of their mouth. Their smell is quite excellent and has also been described as “smelling in stereo”. They have a forked tongue and multiple receptors able to pick up different amounts of chemical cues.