Posted by:
FR
at Fri May 14 14:46:19 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by FR ]
Many snakes can change color, like boas, and of course our Az Black rattlesnake, which is very similar to Helleri. They can go from Jet black to very lite grey in a couple of hours.
Also pythons, The omepelli python is known for this. But so do Childrens pythons, and even olive pythons. At night they can be almost translucent.
Also Black pigment is not only for absorbing heat. Most watersnakes are dark, In fact many diurnal snakes are dark or black. Again here in Az, we have one species of snake that is either black or red, our coachwhip, hmmmmmmm diurnal snakes that frequent hot dry deserts in the day. And its friggin hot all the time. So why would they need to absorb heat?
The answer is very simple. Black also emitts heat. So they can cool off more efficently then liter colored snakes.
The tendency is for lite snakes to be speices that move in cooler temps and dark species that move out in hotter temps.
Lets look at lizards again, Our chucks are very dark and mostly live in crevices. Desert iggies are very lite and mostly shelter in burrows. During the summer, any rocks above the ground will be hotter then hadies. So a crack dweller better be able to lose heat. THese two species occur in the exact same areas, so its not a cooler or hotter climate.
Even with people, dark skinned peoples originated in hotter climates, why would they need to gain heat in hot climates? Lite skinned peoples tend to come from colder climates, wouldn't they be dark.
Things like curly hair, broad noses and dark skin are all adaptions for a hot climate.
Coming from a hot climate, I tend to look at dark animals as ones who lose body heat quickly. Therefore they can work in the shade.
Which is very funny, most snakes tend to stay in the dark, shaded areas most of their active periods, also the vast majority of the time they are underground. Cheers
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RE: A bit off the subject - but - FR, Fri May 14 14:46:19 2010