Meet: the longest snake

The attitude of man to snakes has never beensingle-valued. Many of us consider them useless and vile creatures, and some, on the contrary, are sure that a snake can be useful, since many drugs of the widest range of action are produced from its venom. But no matter how we treat these cold-blooded reptiles, we are still interested in learning about them some facts. For example, which is the longest snake in the world, and where she lived.

Types of snakes

Snakes belong to the suborder of reptiles,which are part of the flake group, and have been living on Earth for at least 67 million years. The special science of serpentology, which derives its name from the Latin name of serpents, "Serpentes", deals with the study of this species.

Currently, more than about 3,000 species are knownvarious reptiles of this class. They are combined into 23 families and six subfamilies. Speaking about snakes, it can be noted that only about a quarter of them are poisonous. Although almost all of them are predators and feed on vertebrates and invertebrates.

Non-poisonous snakes usually swallow their preyalive, although some species pre-kill it, crushing it to the ground, squeezing jaws or grabbing in rings. At the same time, the poisonous reptiles of this species kill the prey before eating it, introducing poison with special piercing teeth.

It can not only swallow its preythe longest snake, but also its smaller relatives. The mechanism of ingestion looks like this: the reptile gradually moves towards the swallowed food, alternately moving the left and right parts of the lower jaw. In this case everything looks as if it is pulling itself into prey.

Interesting facts about snakes

To date, the most interesting question is which snake is the longest. The facts about this are contradictory and vary depending on the source.

For example, you can find information thatIn 2002, Indonesian peasants were caught, and in 2003 a mesh python was shown, which was 14.85 meters long and weighing 447 kilograms. However, there is no reliable information about him, except for a photo that is considered falsified in the media. The fact is, indeed, so controversial that even in the "Guinness Book of Records", not a word is said about him.

As for the "Book of Records" itself, in itit is reported that the longest snake was caught in Africa and had a length of 11.43 meters. The snake belonged to the anaconda subspecies and lived in the tropics of the southern part of the African continent.

In addition to the anaconda, the largest reptileit is considered a mesh python. The most famous specimen of the mesh python was shot in 1912 on the Indonesian island of Celebes. Its length was about ten meters.

Currently, the biggest of all snakesThe representative of the Giant Anaconda is in the "Zoological Society of New York." With a total length of about nine meters, the weight of this anaconda is close to 130 kilograms.

After the anaconda and the mesh python, the third place among the largest snakes is occupied by the Tiger, or Indian python. The length of these creatures can in some cases reach 7-8 meters.

As for the acquaintance of many boas, he takes only the fourth step in the overall ranking of the largest snakes. Usually its size does not exceed five meters.

All these reptiles belong to non-venomous snakes. Poisonous representatives of this class are more modest in size. Although they may be of interest to many because of their danger.

The longest snake that strikes a victim with its poison,called the Royal Cobra. It grows throughout its life, that is, about thirty years, and can reach a length of over five meters. Although usually its average size varies between 3 and 4 meters.

As for fossil representatives of this speciesreptiles, it is believed to be a finding in Egypt of the Giant African python, which lived about 55 million years ago. The length of this ancient creature was 11 meters 80 cm.

To all of the above, you can add for comparison the fact that the smallest snake in the world is called the Brahmin blind. The largest specimen of this species had a length of only 10.8 centimeters.

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