Snakes and many other reptiles have tiny bumps on the scales that cover their heads. Although their function is not entirely clear, zoologists believe that these structures allow them to feel objects when they touch them. Now, a team of researchers from different institutions, coordinated by biologist Jenna M. Crowe-Riddell, from the University of Adelaide, in Australia, has discovered that those of sea snakes stand out much more than those of their terrestrial relatives, covering a larger surface area of their anatomy and have a markedly different shape, similar to a dome. According to Crowe-Riddell and his collaborators, thanks to this peculiarity they would be able to perceive vibrations coming from all directions .
“Sea snakes use these organs to detect movements in the water and, in this way, know if something is in the vicinity, even if they do not touch it. Land animals lack this kind of hydrodynamic sense , ”says Crowe-Riddell.
Sea snakes opted for aquatic life sometime between 9 and 20 million years ago. Although they can see, the ability of this sense is reduced underwater , so biologists have long suspected that these animals use some other type of perception system to, for example, find their prey. “The movements that these make in the water originate vibrations, more or less like when we throw a stone into a lake and the waves spread across its surface”, indicates this expert.
Kate Sanders, Crowe-Riddell’s partner at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the aforementioned University of Adelaide and co-author of this work, which publishes the journal Open Biology , points out that the next step is to thoroughly study the physiology of these structures until determining what it is exactly what they can perceive. “If, as we believe, it is a hydrodynamic sense, we could begin to understand what evolutionary adaptations these animals have developed from the touch sensors that terrestrial snakes have,” he says.
Image: Jenna Crowe-Riddell
