Snakes aren’t simple tubes. Their bodies have five regions – including a short neck

Snakes are seemingly simple in structure, a head attached to a long unremarkable noodle. They do have some pretty cool features at the front end, with venomous fangs and the capability to stretch their mouths and swallow large prey whole, but their bodies are not just the simple tubes we once thought.

My new research, published today in the Journal of Morphology, reveals their body structure to be surprisingly complex – far more than we once thought. In fact, it shows snakes have among the most complex spines in reptiles.

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