Garter anatomy.

[Rushthezeppelin]

So I randomly just decided to start researching snake anatomy (partly out of curiosity of how in the hell they breath when you give em a big meal lol). First thing I noticed was a half debunking of the "snakes only have one lung line". This is seemingly sorta true as their left lung is vestigial in most species compared to the right lung. Although the right lung has alot of extraneous room not used for gas exchange. I'm also seeing some reference to the fact that with some species more that are more water centric that vestigial lung isn't quite so vestigial. Got me to wondering if this is the case with garters. Does anyone know specifically about garter anatomy enough to know if they have this extra lung capacity? Something tells me they would need it between their affinity for hunting fish and their general really active nature. Not trying to enter Delilah in a diving contest or anything, I'm just a really sciency person and I have to know the ins and outs of everything in my world I interact with often enough :D

[d_virginiana]

Huh... I never thought about that. It wouldn't surprise me if they had a bit more lung capacity than some of their metabolically inferior cousins (ha... that's a good scientific term. I should've put that in my thesis somehow.)

Do you happen to have the links to whatever was saying that more aquatic snakes tend to have a less-vestigial left lung? I'm bored as heck and I can't stand fiction, so I'm looking for something to read lol.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Snake Anatomy (http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Care-For-Beginners/Snake-Anatomy/)

[guidofatherof5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l54xlcsH2GU

[d_virginiana]

Interesting read and video!

[Rushthezeppelin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqzeCPs1z4

Heres a dissection of a garter. Seems they also have a mostly vestigial left lung afterall. Kinda wish she would have showed us the size difference.

[d_virginiana]

I wonder if there was a difference in oxygen absorption rates rather than lung-size/structure. I feel like largely aquatic snakes or snakes that do significantly more 'sprinting' and moving around than most species like black racers might have something like that. I doubt there's any solid research on it though...

[Albert Clark]

Wow! That was such a great video. Thanks for sharing that. :)

[joeysgreen]

The more "advanced" species (aka colubrids as opposed to boids) have a more vestigial left lung. All snakes have rather poor surface area for gas exchange when compared to other vertebrates, specifically mammals; their lungs are more relative to empty bags than true tissue made up of alveoli. Also to note, is that they have full encircled tracheal rings so that the trachea does not collapse during swallowing. Like most snakes, much of the distal lung acts more as an air sac that likely does not see much air flow. I might suspect this can be useful when swimming and helps with bouyancy.

To my knowledge, the main differences we see between the more active (racers, coachwhips) snakes is physiology/metabolism and not anatomical. In many instances they will operate at near lethal temperatures in order to maintain a higher metabolism. This increases oxygen demand and respiration rate, but it is still below what is necessary to maintain a mammal. Of interest, a typical mammal uses ~80% of it's injested calories just to maintain body temperature. Quiet the opposite, reptiles can use 60-70% of their calories for growth, maintainence and reproduction.*

*I don't have the text in front of me, but can get more exact numbers if desired. Or, I recommend getting Herpetology by Vitt and Caldwell; 4th edition.

[Albert Clark]

Gotta pick that up or at least check the public library! Thanks J!