Snakes

Find out everything there is to know about snakes and stay updated on the latest snake news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and snake pictures at LiveScience.com. Learn more about these fascinating creatures as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about snakes.

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Indian Python swallowing a Spotted Deer, Yala National Park Sri Lanka.

Snake photos: Pythons swallow crocodiles and other animals … whole

By Jeanna Bryner

Here's a look at the gruesome ways pythons take down their prey, from rats and mice to spotted deer and crocodiles. See photos of the snakes in action.

A black widow spider (Latrodectus geometricus) enjoys a meal of juvenile scarlet snake (Cemophora coccinea) in Georgia.

These spiders take down snakes hundreds of times their size

By Stephanie Pappas

Venomous spiders prey upon snakes many times their size, a new study finds — and often emerge victorious against snakes as venomous as they are.

A tarantula (Theraphosa blondi) captures a juvenile false coral snake of the genus Oxyrhopus and carries it back to its burrow.

Photos: Spiders feast on deadly snakes

By Stephanie Pappas

From the Goliath birdeater tarantula to black widows, spiders are not shy around deadly snakes, often taking down the juveniles and feasting on their meaty bodies for days.

The new krait species Bungarus suzhenae, also known as Suzhen's krait.

Masquerading, deadly snake discovered and named after shape-shifting Chinese goddess

By Harry Baker

Scientists in China have discovered a new species of deadly snake and have named it after a shape-shifting snake goddess from Chinese mythology.

The head of a Taiwanese kukri snake in Lantau Island, Hong Kong plunges deep into the abdomen of a banded bullfrog.

Snakes insert their heads into living frogs' bodies to swallow their organs (because nature is horrifying)

By Mindy Weisberger

In two new studies, researchers identified more snakes that disembowel frogs to eat their organs, a gruesome habit that was only recently discovered.

The 48 million-year-old fossil python discovered in Germany.

World's oldest python fossil unearthed

By Laura Geggel

The discovery of the world's oldest python fossils on record suggests that these snakes originated in Europe and probably lived alongside boas.

Dos, the two-headed snake

Rare, 2-headed snake discovered by Florida house cat

By Brandon Specktor

A rare, two-headed racer snake turned up in Florida, after being caught by a curious house cat

A small-banded kukri snake with its head inserted through the right side of the abdomen of an Asian black-spotted toad, in order to extract and eat the organs. Tissue of a collapsed lung (above, left), and possibly fat tissue, is covered by clear liquid that foams as it mixes with air bubbles from the lung. The upper part of the front leg is likewise covered by foaming blood, mixed with air bubbles from the collapsed lung.

Snakes disembowel toads and feast on the living animal's organs one by one

By Mindy Weisberger

For the first time, scientists have observed snakes disemboweling toads to dine on their organs.

Several water snakes wrap around each other in a "mating ball" in Ohio. A similar ball is being thrown in Florida right now, officials say.

Florida officials cordon off park for annual snake orgy

By Brandon Specktor

Spring is the annual mating season for water snakes in Florida. This year, lakegoers saw so many coiled couples that the state's parks department had to shut down part of the area.

Jeff Fobb holds a Burmese python as he speaks to the media at the start of the 2013 Python Challenge in Davie, Florida.

Hunters Set to Round Up Giant Burmese Pythons in Florida Challenge

By Stephanie Pappas

The state of Florida is preparing to host the Super Bowl in January … and to wipe out as many invasive pythons as possible.

Life restoration of Najash rionegrina through the dunes of the landscape of the Kokorkom desert that extended across Río Negro (Northern Patagonia), Argentina during the Late Cretaceous (100 million years ago).

Beautifully Preserved Skull of 'Biblical Snake' with Hind Legs Discovered

By Michael Caldwell, Alessandro Palci

Scientists have unearthed an amazingly preserved skull of an ancient snake with hind limbs, revealing more about the origin of snakes and how they lost their legs.

Olive python feeding on a wallaby.

Python Swallows Crocodile Whole. Photographer Captures Every Last, Grisly 'Bite.'

By Stephanie Pappas

Teeth and scales didn't stop an Australian olive python from getting a meal.

Anaconda Snake

Anaconda Mom Gives Birth to Baby Clones, No Male Required

By Isobel Whitcomb

What Should You Do If You're Bitten by a Venomous Snake?

By Mindy Weisberger

Above all, remain calm.

This stock photo shows an Australian olive python.

Enormous Python Swallows, Vomits Up Even Bigger Python

By Rafi Letzter

An Australian python vomited up a larger Australian python that it had eaten earlier.

three-eyed snake

3-Eyed Snake Found in Australia Surprises Rangers

By Laura Geggel

Rangers in Australia could hardly believe their eyes when they came across a wild snake with three functioning peepers on its head.

python in Florida

Captured 17-Foot-Long Python Was About to Have 73 Babies

By Laura Geggel

'Mystery Dinner Snake' Found in Belly of Another Snake Finally Identified

By Mindy Weisberger

A snake pulled from inside another snake's stomach was a species unknown to science.

So Many Ticks Were Feasting on This Unlucky Python, They Looked Like Living Scales

By Mindy Weisberger

Some 511 bloodsucking ticks were removed from this snake.

Younger stone snake

8,300-Year-Old Stone Snake Heads Reveal Stone Age Ritual Ceremonies

By Laura Geggel

What might be passed over as two oddly shaped rocks are the work of Stone Age artisans who sculpted the rocks into beady-eyed snake heads, archaeologists have found.