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 ability to stretch their mouths and swallow large prey whole, but their bodies are not just the simple tubes we once thought.
A study published in the Journal of Morphology has revealed that snakes have a more complex body structure than previously thought, consisting of five distinct regions instead of four. This contradicts earlier research that suggested snakes had a uniform gradient of change throughout their bodies. The research, which analyzed three Australian snake species, found that snake necks are shorter than previously believed, comprising around 5% of the body length, or 7-12 vertebrae.
This shorter neck length indicates that snakes have retained an ancestral short-neck pattern throughout their evolution. Additionally, the researchers identified a previously unknown region called the middle thoracic region, nestled between the anterior and posterior thoracic regions. This finding supports the theory that limbless animals, like snakes, have undergone significant changes in their vertebral columns to adapt to their environment.
Despite losing limbs and elongating their bodies, snakes have retained ancestral regions within their vertebral columns and even developed more complex repatterning compared to their limbed counterparts.
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