Fangs Fold for Storage

close up photograph of brown rattlesnake

Biological Strategy

Western diamondback rattlesnake

AskNature Team

Image: Patrick Randall / Flickr / CC BY NC SA - Creative Commons Attribution + Noncommercial + ShareAlike

Modify Position

Many resources that living systems require for survival and reproduction constantly change in quantity, quality, and location. The same is true of the threats that face living systems. As a result, living systems have strategies to maintain access to shifting resources and to avoid changing threats by adjusting their location or orientation. Some living systems modify their position by moving from one location to another. For those that can’t change location, such as trees, they modify position by shifting in place. An example of an organism that does both is the chameleon. This creature can move from place to place to find food or escape predators. But it also can stay in one place and rotate its eyes to provide a 360-degree view so that it can hunt without frightening its prey.

Search this Function

Reptiles

Class Reptilia (“creeping”): Lizards, crocodiles, turtles, snakes

Reptiles retain some of the key characteristics that first enabled vertebrates to live permanently on land. They have dry skin covered in scales made of keratin that help prevent water loss. (Amphibians still need to stick close to water to keep their skin moist.) Many reptiles reproduce by laying eggs that are watertight and have a yolk, so eggs can develop on land while staying moist and nourished. Reptiles are also ectotherms, meaning they don’t produce their own body heat. This means they burn through energy much more slowly than “warm blooded” creatures of the same size. It also means that they need to keep warm to keep active, which is why you might see them spending a seemingly inordinate amount of time simply basking in the sun.

Search this Living System

The curving fangs of a western diamondback rattlesnake are stored when not in use by folding against the roof of the mouth via hinges.

“A western diamondback rattlesnake strikes at an intruder. The snake’s jaws are specially hinged to allow it to open them extremely wide. This is necessary because the fangs curve inwards and need to be plunged vertically into the prey. When not in use they are folded back against the roof of the mouth (see diagram). The snake’s windpipe is protruding at the bottom of its mouth — this is so that the snake can still breathe after it has a mouthful of prey.” (Foy and Oxford Scientific Films 1982:149)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Book

The grand design: Form and colour in animals

BLA Publishing Limited for J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd, Aldine House, London | 26/02/1983 | Sally Foy

embedly preview

AskNature