Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've read that the difference is pythons lay eggs whereas boas have live birth. But I'm confused, b/c I always thouhgt one of the main things that differentiated reptiles from mammals was that reptiles lay eggs. HUH? Help me out here, is it just an exception to the rule? PS if I'm new with snakes so have patience with my dumb questions

The main thing that differentiates mammals from reptiles, amphibs, and birds is mammals have fur/hair and produce milk for young.

Christy

pythons lay eggs.(oviparous)..lots of colubrid snakes do also...corns.kings.milks...bulls/gopher/pines.....etc etc and alot of cobras......and alot more stuff......

live bithing snakes (ovoviparous).include garters,agkistrodons(copperheads and cottonmouths etc)...boas......DeKay's snakes.....cobras too.....some do each.........and alot more......

lizards do both.....turtles Ithink all lay eggs.....

and there are 2 mammals that lay eggs....

and there are always exceptions to any rule.....

mammals are "warm blooded " and reptiles are "cold blooded".......

dinosaurs were both they think.......yet we may never know.....

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JY included some good terminology, but I thought I'd clarify for those who don't know....

Placental mammals (all of "us" except our good friend the D-B Platypus, and something called an echidna...kinda like a cross between a hedgehog and anteater) give birth to live young. We nourish our offspring internally during gestation through a direct connection between mom and baby. Users of this strategy are known as "Viviporous" (excuse spelling, but I'm sure I'm close).

Egg layers like opur good friends the pythons produce a shelled egg. All of the nourishment is packed inside a membrane within a shell. They are "oviporous".

Live bearing snakes still have all the nourishment for baby enclosed in a membrane, only they carry that membrane internally instead of shelling it and dumping it somewhere. It is thought that this method is more effective in maintaining the embryos at an acceptable temp, or other theories. They are "ovoviviporous".

Hope this helps.....

Sooo...basically the boas have an egg inside, it breaks, then they give birth to the live young? So is it basically the same as the egg layers, they just keep the eggs inside?

You got it. Actually, many of the ovoviviparous snakesare born still inside their membrane and break out of it shortly after being expelled from mom.

Cool, I didn't know DeKay's snakes were live bearers

DeKays are so cool.........they have these little babies and then like the kids and all would come out and learn to eat worms right from my hand........mom and pops did too usually.....

I had them right in th living room.....plants and dirt and all........

some were the normal browns of light and darker.......and some were almost pink......

had to release them all.......the males would breed the females so much some of them started to get infections in their vents and got all messed up..one died........hey wouldn't stop breeding........

........have fun
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I'm also semi new to pythons & boas as I usually only have had venomous and colubrid snakes so I hear that boas AND pythons belong to the BOIADE family and pythons are a sub family called Pythoninae and the boas being Boinae (sub names). Then I hear pythons have been moved into a different class called the Pythonidae and the sub specific name is Pythoninae. Confusing but I understand when it comes to taxonomy names get switched around A LOT. Also I hear new world pythons belong to Pythoninae and old world reptiles belong to the class Python...