Reptile & Amphibian Forums

No I don't mean arm pits I wanted to know what came first, is it snakes with no pits (colubrids,elapids,Boas) or snakes with pits (vipers,pythons). People say that pits are primitive YET they help get prey and avoid predators MUCH better IMO than snakes without pits. It seems that these snakes (especially pit vipers) have evolved into a more sophisticated species with heat sensing organs, I mean how many animals have heat sensing organs? And if it's not to much to ask, why did some snakes evolve and obtained pits while others lack them. You would think that a rat snake (just an example) would have something to make up for it's lack of heat sensing pits such as a stronger jacobsons organ.

I can think of several snakes other than venomous that have heat pits, BP's carpets, atb's to name a few.

So therfore pythons and pit vipers are much more advanced than regular snakes.

>>So therfore pythons and pit vipers are much more advanced than regular snakes.

In many ways, the answer to this question is yes.

Pythons are actually quite derived compared to snakes such as Cylindrophis and Anilius which retain more of the ancestral characteristics. In addition to the powerful constricting behaviour (whiich the basal snakes don't have) the intricate heat-seeking pits of the pythons (and independently present in some boids such as Corallus) are a tremendous adaptation.

Similarly, the heat seeking pits in the pit vipers are also a tremendous refinement. The vipers were one of the earliest lineages to split off from the other Colubroidea (advanced snakes) and in the 60-80 million years they've been tinkering, they have certainly ended up as the most derived of the advanced snakes (the heat seeking pits in addition to the tremendous refinement of the venom delivery architecture).

Looking at the evolution of the herps just shows that they are even cooler than we thought they were

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com

I agree with you 100%. I've always owned colubrids as a kid and teenager but didn't really know any information about venomous herps or Boids. But when I found out that some snakes had heat sensory organs(glands?) I had to get one. The fact that they evolved in that way is mind blowing. No I don't keep venomous snakes for there heat pits but it IS a nice add on . Anyway Thanks, and take care.

boids(pythons and boas) are named as among the most primitive snakes.....crotalines(pit vipers),as the most advanced....and yes some boas(see corallus caninus,for example)do indeed have pits.