SNAKES Essays - Colubrids, Venomous Snakes, , Term Papers

SNAKES Justin Keith Mr. Curtwright Biology Keith 1 Have you ever wondered exactly what a snake is? Snakes are elongated, limbless reptiles that have often appeared in art and mythology. Scientists have currently discovered an estimated 2,500-3,000 living species of snakes living throughout the world except in the arctic regions. There is one exception to the old world viper, which has been found as far north as Scandinavia (60? North Latitude). The size variation of snakes ranges from slender blind snakes (family Leptotyphlopidae) which reaches a maximum length of 13cm (5 in.), to the largest snake on record, the Asiatic reticulated python, which attained a record length of 10m (33 ft). Have you ever asked anyone what the phyical characteristics of a snake is? To answer your question: Snakes lack limbs, a sternum (breast bone), shoulder girdle, exterior ear openings, and urinary bladder, and most snakes (but not all) lack a pelvic girdle. There are two types of snakes: constrictors and poisonous. Constrictors will either stalk their prey or lay very still until Its prey come near it. It will then strike forward and wrap around the prey crushing it and cutting off all air supply. The initial strike takes less than one-half second. It will then swallow the prey animal head first because the hair of animals folds backwards and makes it easier to swallow. Poisonous snakes inject a very potent venom into their prey Keith 2 through fangs. There are three different class of venomous snakes: Opisthoglyphus (rear fanged), Proteroglyph (front fanged, with holes pointing outward for "spraying") and Solenoglyph (front fanged and carved). The most common of these three are Solenoglyphs, which have fangs that can be folded along the roof of the mouth. All snakes have powerful digestive enzymes to breakdown the hair, bones, and other parts of their preys' body. As part of the digestive system the salivary glands also produce powerful enzymes. If saliva containing these enzymes enters the wounds of a prey animal, it not only starts the digestive process, but also may cause such serous tissue damage that the prey dies. The destructive substances in a snakes venom include neurotoxins and hemotoxins. Neurotoxins paralyze the central nervous system and cause heart and respiratory failure; hemotoxins destroy blood vessels and blood cells and cause internal hemorragins. The different substances are not uniformly present in all snake venom, but vary with the species and the individual snakes within a species. Venom retains digestive powers; injected into a prey animal it may shorten the usual days-long digestive process of a snake by more than half. Less than one-third of the 2,500-3,000 living species of snakes are classified as venomous, and less than 300 species are fatal to humans. In the United States, more than twice as many people are killed by bees, wasps, and scorpion stings as by snake bites. Keith 3 There are four basic kinds of snake movement: Lateral (horizontal) undulation, conceltina movement sidewinding and rectilinear. Lateral undulating, also called serpentine movement is the most common form and is used by all snakes. By alternately contracting and relaxing muscles down each side of the body, the snake forms itself into a number of rearward-moving horizontal waves. While doing so, the snake maneuvers its body so that the rear of each backward moving wave pushes against something resistant. In concertania movement, also called earthworm movement, the snake anchors the forepart of its body and pulls the rest of its body behind it in the form of hoizontal curves; it then extends out the forepart of its body, anchors it, and repeats the process. Sidewinding is employed on soft sand or other surfaces that offer no resistance or slip. In sidewinding the snake loops its body into an S-shape, with only two points of its body coming in contact with the surface of the ground. It then progressively shifts the two contact points back along the body consequently propelling its body forward. Rectilinear, or caterpillar, movement involves a sliding of the skin back and forth over the body musculature and is therefor possible only in those kinds of snakes, such as rattlesnakes and boas, which do not have the skin tightly attached to the underlying musculature. The ribs remain essentially motionless, and the scales only provide body-to-ground friction. Keith 4 The vast majority of snakes lay

When ledgends die essays

When ledgends die essays In the book When the Legends Die by Hal Borland, Tom is influenced by many people and their ideas. As his settings change, new things influence him to change his personality. The three main influences on Tom are his mother Bessie, Red Dillon and His biggest influence out of everyone would be his mother Bessie. She taught Tom about the old ways, how to fish, chant and weave baskets. Basically she him everything he knows. As well as teaching Tom all these things she taught him to be self sufficient. Eventhough she had 13 years with her son, she gave him a belief in his indian ways that would come back again later on in his life. At the end of this novel when he goes back to the old ways, it's really a way for him to thank her for everything she provided him with. He really found himself at the end of the novel and found his Red Dillon was the total opposite of Bessie. He made him forget about where he was from and his goals for life. He pushed Tom farther away from his history. He also got him to cheat and drink. Tom knew these things were wrong but it stayed in his routine. Red tested Tom to his fullest and pushed Tom to work harder. Unfortunatley Red did not work quite as hard as Tom and even got Tom to set a deadfall on one of his rides. When he was living with the white man he was getting used to the white peoples ways all the while losing site of his Ute history. Mary Redmond who was another of Tom's influences played a big role in encouraging Toms to change his ideas about life in general. She was the one looking over him wile he was staying in the hospital. She was the only person that was in the hospital who truly cared for him. He knew she meant well but he was scared to ask her for help because he had been let down so many times before in his life. She changed his thinking on what he was going to do when he go out of the hospital. At first ...

Periodisation Justification for football season Essay

Periodisation Justification for football season - Essay Example This matters includes their family member health and other domestic issues. When the member of coachs family is sick in the course of training period, he should not take time off. Periodization can be defined as the long-term variation planning of the intensity and volume of training. Periodization prevents overtraining and ensure performance is optimal at the speculated time (Eikenberry 2010). Volume in periodization is amount of exercise that is performed either monthly, annually, or per day. Volume is measurable in terms of sets in reps. The intensity is measured in terms of work and time done. The intensity and volume of training can be estimated in terms of exercise volume which is computed by the average lifted weight (Elliot 2003). The training volume can be estimated by the load of the volume. Intensity of the exercise is evaluated by competing the relative intensity. Consequently, training intensity is estimated by the average mass that is lifted annually, monthly, or daily. Therefore, periodization involves moving the priority activities not related to sports to activities that are sports related. Non- sports related activities includes low intensity and high volume. however sport related activities include the high intensity and low volume. Periodizati on in football is important because it ensures performance is optimized and reduces overtraining. Diagram 1 and 2 shows the periodization model of an advanced footballer (Francis 2010). For many years the professional footballers have recognized the need for emphasizing on various aims and objectives during and off the season. Their aim is to be at peak at a specific period. In planning their exercises and coaching over a long time, the athletes aim for various principles. They principles include: their bodies adapt to fewer stresses at a given period. For example one is able to develop their high physiological stress at the same time develop their