Posted by:
indictment
at Thu Oct 23 11:35:18 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by indictment ]
"The evolution of the rattle is something of a mystery. There are no snakes with intermediate stages - they either have a rattle or they don't. Many other snakes, though, vibrate their tails if they are disturbed, and if they happen to be resting among dead leaves or loose pebbles, a rustling or a rattling sound is the result. The first step towards the evolution of a rattle could have been taken by a snake that vibrated its tail which had, by chance a deformed tip, causing a biuldup of shed epidermis."
---- Chris Mattison's the Encycloedia of snakes
Although no definate, it does offer a theory of the snake's rattle.
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