Do Snakes Have Bones?

Do Snakes Have Backbones?

Yes, Snakes have backbones, and other bones. It is hard to believe that, given that snakes are so flexible that they can tie themselves in knots, but they are reptiles, and all reptiles, being vertebrates, by definition have backbones.

Only lower animals such as insects, worms, arachnids (spiders) lack bones. Many invertebrates like insects or crabs have a stiff exoskeleton that protects their internal organs. Once you move to more advanced groups, like fish, reptiles, or mammals, they are all vertebrates.

So how come snakes are so flexible? This is actually because they have very flexible vertebrae, and they have many more of them than mammals, up to 250 in some species. Most of the vertebrae are attached to two ribs, all the way to the cloaca. Caudal vertebrae don't have ribs, in rattlesnakes they are enlarged and fused, forming the rattle.

Snakes Also Have Very Specialised Skulls

Their backbones are not the only parts of the skeleton of these very specialised reptiles that have adapted to their lifestyle. One of the amazing things about the large constrictor snakes such as pythons, is how they manage to swallow prey which is much wider than they are.

Snake skulls have highly mobile jaws and the ligaments connecting the upper and lower jaws are very elastic. This allows the snake to open its mouth much wider than the narrow head would suggest, so it can envelop and slowly ingest prey much wider than it is.