Description: Interesting stuff about evolution, and sometimes other sciences
Whether or not you’ve seen one in person, you’re probably familiar with the way a rattlesnake uses its rattle. When cornered, a rattler takes a ready-to-strike posture, stiffens its muscles, and quickly vibrates its tail. Of course on the end of that tail is a rattle, or as the authors describe it in a recent paper published in The American Naturalist , “interlocking segments of keratin that fit loosely within one another.” (Keratin is a protein that also makes up your hair, nails, outer layer of skin…and
A western diamondback rattlesnake ( Crotalus atrox ) in Arizona, rattling its tail to scare away a perceived threat – presumably the photographer. Photo from Allf et al. (2016)
It turns out the behavior of tail rattling is much more common than the rattle itself. Rattlesnakes belong to the Viparidae family of snakes, all of which have long hollow fangs that inject proteolytic (protein-degrading) venom into their prey victims or some other animal stupid enough to mess with a rattlesnake. The rattle on the tip of a rattler’s tail helps it send a clear warning to stay away to avoid those fangs. A second family of snakes called Colubridae contains about two-thirds of all snake species