Snakes are incredibly flexible and strong creatures, so do they really have bones? There’s more to snakes than meets the eye, so let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of snakes.
Snakes have many bones. In fact, they have more bones than other animals. Most of the length of their body is occupied by their spine, with hundreds of vertebrae and ribs. Pythons and boa constrictors still have ‘pelvic spurs,’ leftovers of what once were limbs.
In the rest of this article, I will explain the anatomy of the snake, the body parts they have, which bones they have and how many, and whether the bones of a snake can break or not.
What Body Parts Does a Snake Have?
Snakes don’t have nearly as many body parts as most animals, but that used to be different. Millions of years ago, snakes actually had limbs. Biological adaptations limited their ability to grow limbs, but that might change in the future.
Does a Snake Have Legs?
Snakes don’t have legs. However, up until 150 million years ago, snakes had legs. Some snakes have tiny leftover hind legs or ‘spurs’ on the sides of their cloaca. Those ‘spurs’ are bigger on male snakes and smaller on their female counterparts.
For those who aren’t aware, the cloaca is the hole through which snakes urinate and defecate. It is also their reproductive organ.
Snakes used to have a gene found in animals with limbs called the SHH gene (Sonic Hedgehog gene). They lost it over time due to mutation, so they can no longer grow limbs. However, the gene is still present in pythons and boa constrictors—it’s just inactive.
How Many Legs Does a Snake Have?
Snakes used to have two legs, but they don’t have limbs anymore. Pythons and boa constrictors still have spurs on their body where the hind legs used to be, but no fully formed limbs.
Surprisingly, python embryos have tiny limbs for a short time, but these disappear quickly. This shows that the Sonic Hedgehog gene can still be active, and maybe someday certain types of snakes will develop fully-formed limbs like they used to have.
Do Snakes Have Bones for Legs?
Snakes do not have bones for legs. However, the ‘spurs’ found in the anatomy of pythons and boa constrictors are remnants of their femur. Femurs are thigh bones, which is something snakes used to have millions of years ago.
Those remnants aren’t bones but proof of the anatomy of snakes from the past.
Do Snakes Have Penises?
Male snakes have penises. Snakes have to procreate sexually, just as any other vertebrate. Each penis from the male snake is connected to one testicle, so when they ejaculate from one hemipenis, the sperm comes from the one testicle attached to it.
How Many Penises Do Snakes Have?
Male snakes have two penises, which are called hemipenes. The penises are right next to each other, and the male snakes use whatever penis is closer to a female snake to mate. Having two penises makes it easier for the males to procreate.
It is assumed that snakes have two penises because there is a lot of competition between males to procreate with female snakes. On top of that, female snakes can store sperm from different male snakes for many years and get pregnant from one or multiple male snakes.
The female snake chooses the superior sperm for her offspring, so the males must show that they are superior to the other mates. That might be why snakes naturally have two penises.
Do Snakes Have Hands and Feet?
Snakes don’t have hands and feet. Snakes lost their hands and feet, together with the rest of their limbs, as their bodies adapted to specialized ways of moving and hunting.
Gene loss ‘was the reason snakes lost their legs. Scientists even found that ‘toes’ were forming in the python embryo in the short time the SHH gene was active.
Do Snakes Have Fingers?
Snakes don’t have fingers. Reptiles never really have “fingers.” that noun is used mainly for humans and other apes. The word used for reptiles is ‘digits.’ Reptiles typically have five digits, like most species. Snakes, however, don’t have any digits.
Snakes don’t even have limbs for the digits to be attached to.
Why Do Snakes Have No Legs or Arms?
Snakes used to have limbs up to 150 million years ago but lost them because of mutations in their DNA. These mutations allowed them to burrow, swim, and hunt underground more easily.
The gene is still present in pythons and boas, and some scientists say snakes may evolve to grow limbs again at some point.
Does a Snake Have a Spine?
Snakes have very long spines. It allows them to be flexible and robust when protecting themselves or catching prey. They have hundreds of vertebrae and muscles supporting the spine and ribs, which in turn protect the snake’s organs, like the heart, liver, lungs, and an elongated stomach.
Does a Snake Have a Tail?
Snakes have a tail, even though it’s hard to imagine that you can separate a snake’s body and tail from one another. The tail is the part where no ribs are attached to the vertebrae. The tail has barely any organs.
Do Snakes Have Hips?
Snakes today don’t have hips or hip bones, but their ancestors did. Hips don’t have a function without legs to assist, so snakes evolved to get rid of them too. Some snakes still have some small bone spurs where their hips used to be, but they don’t perform any function.
Which Bones Do Snakes Have?
Snakes have plenty of vertebrae, ribs, and additional bones in their mouths. They also have a skull, among other bones. The number of bones entirely depends on the snake species, but they all have hundreds.
Do Snakes Have Finger Bones?
Snakes don’t have finger bones. They don’t have limbs, so it would be impossible for them to have finger bones. Even if they did, you wouldn’t call that body part a “finger”—this term is reserved for humans and other apes. You can use the word digits when it comes to animals.
Do Snakes Have Ribs?
Snakes have ribs. They have a pair of ribs per vertebrae, aside from the ones in their tail. The purpose of ribs is to protect organs, as is the case with humans. The organs of a snake are spread out over its complete body, but mostly above its tail.
Do Snakes Have Backbones?
Snakes have a spine with many vertebrae. The spine is almost as long as the body. They need all those bones to keep everything together and be snake flexible, all while staying strong enough to hunt prey.
Do Snakes Have Hand Bones?
Snakes don’t have hand bones because they don’t have any hands. At one point, they had limbs, but that was millions of years ago. Even if they did, we wouldn’t call them hands. You would call their limbs pentadactylus.
How Many Bones Does a Snake Have?
Snakes have a lot of bones. They have more bones than any other animal. It depends on how big and long the snakes are, but in general, it’s over 300. Snake bones are joined loosely together, allowing them to be flexible.
Snakes are very flexible, thanks to their long spine with many vertebrae. The number of vertebrae can start at 110 and go up to 600 in giant snakes. In comparison, humans have 33 vertebrae.
On top of that, they have a pair of ribs per vertebrae, a skull, and bones in their mouth. Giving a specific number of bones is impossible because it varies so much.
How Many Ribs Do Snakes Have?
For every vertebra snakes have, there is a pair of ribs. This means they can have between 200 and 1200 ribs. It entirely depends on the type of snake and its growth. There are no ribs in the tail of a snake, but it’s hard to notice where the tail starts.
Can Snake Bones Be Broken?
Snake bones can be broken, just like any other bones. Their bones are more flexible, but they will eventually break if you put enough pressure on them.
With that many bones in their body, it doesn’t take much to break one, which can be a big problem for snakes. Almost every bone is attached to the vertebrae, so one broken bone can make it hard for snakes to move and survive.
Final Thoughts
Snakes have hundreds of bones, primarily vertebrae and ribs. The concrete amount entirely depends on the type of snake and its size.
Even though snakes don’t have any limbs today, there is concrete proof that they used to have them. Pythons and boa constrictors have pelvic spurs where there used to be legs.
They also have the SHH (Sonic Hedgehog) gene, a gene that makes limbs grow in animals. That gene used to be active in snakes millions of years ago but has been inactive because of biological adaptations.
