Snakes! The Best Squamates

[Priory_of_Sion]

A Gaboon Viper is on the loose in my part of the world, which is unfortunate for all parties involved.

Also the journal of experimental biology released a paper detailed that constrictors kill prey by cutting off blood circulation and not suffocation. I'd link but too lazy.

[Belesarius]

Gaboon vipers are bad news.

 

Also, link or die.

[Priory_of_Sion]

Here is the Gaboon Viper. Looks good, just on the wrong continent. 

 

here is link

[Toxn]

Eh, its not the most dangerous snake by any manner of means.

 

Now this on the other hand...

 

[Toxn]

Also a candidate for best squamate:

 

[Priory_of_Sion]

Monitors are cooler than that but oh well.

Stem snakes with tiny little arms. -> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2015/07/24/four-legged-snake-shakes-up-squamate-family-tree-or-does-it/#.VbNRfF2SUvV.twitter'> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2015/07/24/four-legged-snake-shakes-up-squamate-family-tree-or-does-it/#.VbNRfF2SUvV.twitter

[Scolopax]

Relevant

 

[Toxn]

Monitors are cooler than that but oh well.

Stem snakes with tiny little arms. -> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2015/07/24/four-legged-snake-shakes-up-squamate-family-tree-or-does-it/#.VbNRfF2SUvV.twitter'> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2015/07/24/four-legged-snake-shakes-up-squamate-family-tree-or-does-it/#.VbNRfF2SUvV.twitter

This is a story that just keeps repeating

 

[Mogensthegreat]

Snakes are absolutely beautiful animals, and a constrictors are deadly and in the most terrific and unique way, but no extant serpent compares to the Tzar of the squamates, the Titanoboa. It weighed 2500 lbs (13,135 kg), measured 42 ft (12.8 m) and killed by constriction with a force of 400 psi.

 Life-sized model from the Smithsonian

 

 Vertebrae of the Titanoboa compared to a modern boa vertebra (center)

 

Somewhat silly video, but relevant:

 

[Collimatrix]

 a force of 400 psi.

 

Oh dear.

[LostCosmonaut]

How many joules is that? I'm a bit rusty on my conversion factors.

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

How many joules is that? I'm a bit rusty on my conversion factors.

Force doesn't have units of PSI. 

 

Psi is Pressure per square inch. 400 PSI is 2.758e+6 Pascals. A pascal is a Newton/Meter^2. Newtons are Kg*m/s^2.

 

Multiply a Newton by a distance (meters) and you get Joules. Joules = Kg*m^2 / s^2

 

So if this thing had a pressure output of 2.758e6 pascals, that's roughly 27.5 atmospheres.

 

Which means this thing can squeeze you at 27.5x atmospheric pressure at sea level. 

 

For perspective again, a depth change of 33 feet (10 meters) in the ocean will equate to adding an extra atmosphere (1) of pressure to a submerged body. 

 

So 27.5*10 = 275 meters. To get the same pressure, you would have to dive 275 meters below the ocean surface. 

[Donward]

Force doesn't have units of PSI. 

 

Psi is Pressure per square inch. 400 PSI is 2.758e+6 Pascals. A pascal is a Newton/Meter^2. Newtons are Kg*m/s^2.

 

Multiply a Newton by a distance (meters) and you get Joules. Joules = Kg*m^2 / s^2

 

So if this thing had a pressure output of 2.758e6 pascals, that's roughly 27.5 atmospheres.

 

Which means this thing can squeeze you at 27.5x atmospheric pressure at sea level. 

 

For perspective again, a depth change of 33 feet (10 meters) in the ocean will equate to adding an extra atmosphere (1) of pressure to a submerged body. 

 

So 27.5*10 = 275 meters. To get the same pressure, you would have to dive 275 meters below the ocean surface. 

 

That's the YOKE

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

If the Reynolds number is much less than 10, I don't get jokes.

[LostCosmonaut]

If the Reynolds number is much less than 10, I don't get jokes.

*Sadly puts away "1000 and 1 Stokes Flow Funnies" book*

[LostCosmonaut]

Saw this guy while hiking yesterday;

 

 

(the rare potato rattlesnake)

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

I have the following exchange about five times a summer. 

 

*Hiker coming toward me. I'm biking or running*

 

"There's a snake up there, just a heads up."

 

"Did you move it?" 

 

*I get the most "are you fucking insane" look from this guy/girl*

 

"I'm going to take that as a no."

 

*Finds snake, uses small stick to move it from the trail*

 

 

 

On crowded trails, I move snakes. More for their safety than anyone else's. 

[Donward]

I have the following exchange about five times a summer. 

 

*Hiker coming toward me. I'm biking or running*

 

"There's a snake up there, just a heads up."

 

"Did you move it?" 

 

*I get the most "are you fucking insane" look from this guy/girl*

 

"I'm going to take that as a no."

 

*Finds snake, uses small stick to move it from the trail*

 

 

 

On crowded trails, I move snakes. More for their safety than anyone else's. 

 

Isn't there a parable about moving a snake from a well-traveled path?

 

...

 

...

 

Well there should be!

[Priory_of_Sion]

 

Boomslang has to be one of the best names in animalia 

[Toxn]

 

Boomslang has to be one of the best names in animalia 

I always thought that the boomslang's close cousin, the twig snake, doesn't get enough love:

 

 

The neck inflation is a sign that you done fucked up and should back off:

 

[Belesarius]

 

[Scolopax]

 

[Priory_of_Sion]

Snake bite on my finger 

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

It's getting warmer, and the rattlesnakes are coming out here on the front range of Colorado. 

 

I haven't seen one yet, but I've heard plenty of people have. 

 

Also, what snake bit you and why did you upset it so?

[Priory_of_Sion]

Saw a Timber and an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake down here last month. 

 

It was a juvenile gray rat snake. I was at a university outreach event for my herpetology class and someone brought this rat snake. The asshole bit basically everyone that tried to pick it up. It bit me four or five times that day by that bugger.