| Hey kids, close your eyes for a moment and imagine | | | | Fun fact #1: Biggest Snake: You can divide snakes up |
| that your arms are stuck to your sides and your legs | | | | into two groups: those who catch their prey by biting |
| are stuck together. Imagine that you have no ears, and | | | | them with poisonous fangs, and those who catch their |
| that you smell with your tongue. And imagine that your | | | | prey by squeezing. The biggest snakes are the |
| entire body is covered with fingernails. | | | | squeezers, or constrictors. The title for biggest snake |
| Seems strange, doesn't it? Now you know what it's | | | | is shared between two species: anacondas and |
| like being a snake! | | | | pythons. Anacondas are the heaviest snakes, and can |
| Snakes are a group of reptiles closely related to | | | | weigh up to 550 pounds. Reticulated pythons are the |
| lizards. Most people think that the big difference | | | | longest; they can reach up to 10 metres (33 feet) long. |
| between them is that lizards have legs and snakes | | | | That's like laying eight 10-year-olds end-to-end! |
| don't, but there are some legless lizards, and some | | | | Fun Fact #2: Most Poisonous Snake: The Taipan is a |
| snakes that have little "claws" near their tails which are | | | | snake that lives in Australia, and its venom will clot your |
| actually the remnants of hind legs! | | | | blood, turning it into a thick soup, and destroy all your |
| Actually, the biggest differences between snakes and | | | | organs. It also doesn't need a lot of venom to do that. |
| lizards are the ears, eyes, and scales. | | | | Terry Phillip, a curator at Reptile Gardens, says: "1 |
| Snakes don't have eyelids like lizards do. Instead, their | | | | milligram of the venom is equal to 1 M&M candy |
| eyes are covered by a clear, hard scale. If something | | | | cut into 1,000 equal pieces and [one of those pieces] is |
| gets in a snake's eye, the snake licks its eyes clean | | | | how much it takes to kill one adult human being." That |
| using its tongue! | | | | is one deadly snake! |
| Snakes also don't have ear openings on their heads at | | | | Fun Fact #3: Greatest Actor: The hognose snake is a |
| all! Instead, snakes hear though vibrations that travel | | | | burrowing snake that is harmless to humans, but if |
| though the air and the ground. So if you want to | | | | anything threatens it, it will flatten out its head, rear up, |
| frighten away any snakes, all you need to to is stamp | | | | and hiss, just like a cobra! Better yet, if that doesn't |
| very hard as you walk. | | | | work to scare off the threat, the hognose will roll over |
| Snakes don't use legs to get around, either. They | | | | on its back and play dead with its tongue hanging out |
| move by slithering with their bodies, and using their | | | | of its mouth. Even if you flip it over onto its belly, it will |
| scales to help hold them in place. Snake scales cover | | | | just roll on to its back again! |
| their entire bodies, and the widest scales are on their | | | | Discover more kids science articles, look up amazing |
| bellies. Their scales sit in your skin just like fingernails do, | | | | fun facts, do animated science quizzes with talking |
| and help to grip the ground as a snake moves. | | | | characters, meet friends in virtual worlds, play games |
| Because they are also hard, like your fingernails, scales | | | | and do fun science activities at Science Score - the |
| don't stretch as a snake grows. That's why snakes | | | | world's most fun online elearning product for kids. Join |
| have to shed their scales as they grow. They crawl | | | | the thousands of kids to play with Science Score and |
| out of the old, too-small skin, and leave it behind like a | | | | do well in Science. |
| long sock! | | | | |