>>makes you wonder why no african snakes evolved rattles, when there are many large herding mammals over there.



Regardless of the presence of large animals, this is exactly why I disagree. There are plenty of African snakes that "rattle" (I'm pretty sure I've seen mambas do it). Asian ratsnakes rattle as do Australian taipans. As far as we know, there have never been rattlesnakes anywhere on those continents.



If you pay attention, I think you'll find that wild caught specimens of a majority of species "rattle".



There's probably no way to prove it either way, but I'm convinced that "rattling" evolved long before the rattlesnakes, maybe even before snakes. I think I even remember seeing iguanas and monitors "rattle".



I think the rattlesnake's rattle evolved simply as a better way, probably as described in a post below.
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