For many people, the word ‘snake’ invokes an extreme response. Understanding how they can cope without limbs to catch and manipulate food, or to chase prey and escape from predators, or why some species give birth to live young while others lay eggs, are just some of the many fascinating aspects of snakes.

Regardless of how you feel about snakes, hopefully this book will help you to appreciate them. Their physical appearance and biology are the remarkable result of millions of years of evolution, as their ancestors abandoned the use of limbs for a life of sliding on their bellies. Along the way, their elongated shape has required all sorts of compromises and solutions to a range of problems. They even had the audacity to invade aquatic environments and speciate rapidly to create the diverse assemblage of sea snakes we have today.

Book preview