I was researching on snakes and came
across some interesting facts. Please feel free to add your comments even you
agree or disagree.
Why Russell viper does not called Russell
pit viper?
This is pretty exciting, to under-stand
for this we have to understand following ;
Pit
Vipers, pythons and boas have holes on
their faces called pit organs, which contain a membrane that can detect infrared
radiation from warm bodies. At night, the pit organs allow snakes to 'see' an
image of their prey. Vipers possess one large pit organ on either side of the
head, between the eye and the nostril.
Vipers
Vipers are characterized by a pair of long, hollow, venom-injecting fangs
attached to movable bones of the upper jaw called maxillaries that are folded
back in the mouth when not in use.
Russell
Patrick Russell born 6 February 1726, Edinburgh – death 2 July 1805, London was
a Scottish surgeon and naturalist who worked in India. In 1781, a younger
brother, Claud became a chief administrator of the East India Company at
Vishakhapatnam in Madras Province. Claud however suffered poor health and the
family insisted that Patrick attend to him. Arriving in India, he began to
study the natural history of the region. The naturalist to the East India
Company in the Carnatic was Dr John Koenig, student of Carolus Linnaeus and
when he died in 1785, the Governor of Madras personally offered the post of
'Botanist and Naturalist' to Patrick. Russell wrote about the plant and animal
life of Madras as he had of Aleppo. As a physician as well as a naturalist to
the East India Company in the Carnatic he was concerned with the problem of
snakebite and made it his aim to find a way for people to identify venomous
snakes. Patrick, his brother Claud and the family left for England on January
1791. Some of the collections he made were placed in the museum at Madras
although he took back some snake skins that are now in the collection of the
Natural History Museum at London. Returning to England, he worked on the book
on snake, which was to be published by the East India Company. The first volume
of his An Account of Indian Serpents Collected on the Coast of Coromandel was
published in 1796 with 44 plates.
I hope you understood the basic concept.
Now we will take a look to our question, In Russell viper there is only one
hole which works as a nose + heat sensor, but viper’s maxillaries gland is
present. This snake was found by Patrick Russell so we called this snake
Russell viper.
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