• Question: how does snake flexible when it has many bones inside]

    Asked by kayelloa to Hitesh, Hywel, Mae, Nik, Tiffany on 18 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Mae Woods

      Mae Woods answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Snakes have a large number of vertebrae (bones in the back/spine) and it is the large number of these bones that actually helps the snake to move and be flexible!

      The snake has hundreds of these small vertebrae and this helps the snake to move the front and tail of the body in different ways.

      Imagine taking a very long slinky with lots of coils. you could get a friend to hold one end and keep it straight, while you bend the other end and the middle would cope with the change in shape.

      One way a snake can move is by pushing against the floor and another way would be to make contact with the floor in one part of the body like the tail end and then move the head part around.

    • Photo: Hitesh Dave

      Hitesh Dave answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Flexible bones in snakes called spine or vertebrae..and as Mae told this spine is made up of lots of coil shaped material which can be folded anyside…

      This vertebral column is so strong in snake like python which can easily swallow the whole animal like cow..I have seen a video on youtube related to this sometime back…

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