Aspid - it is what or who?According to biblical legend, this terrible and poisonous serpent with horns, with white and black colors of the sandy spots scattered on the skin.He was represented in the imagination of people like winged dragon with two legs and a bird's beak.In medieval tables were told that Asp lives in the mountains, he never sits down on the ground, preferring to just huge stones.According to legend, this monster supposedly devastated neighborhood, destroying livestock and people.And it does not kill, except to burn a blue flame.So the snake - who is in fact: the biblical serpent tyrant or a real reptile that lives on this planet?Learn!
What is a snake?
word "snake" at the present time is not a proper name, and therefore in the middle or end of the sentence is written with a lower case, and not capitalized.Asps - This comprehensive family of poisonous snakes, which includes more than 347 different species.All of them are united in the genus 61 or superfamily.The Greek adder - "a poisonous snake."Modern classification includes a family of a whole group of sea snakes that had previously belonged to a completely different family.
most outstanding representatives of this group of reptiles animals are:
- water cobra,
- dashboard cobra,
- mambas,
- Krayt,
- decorated ASPs,
- collared cobra,
- African mottled ASPs,
- royal cobra,
- wood cobra,
- Denison,
- false viper,
- deadly snakes,
- tiger snake,
- Solomon ASPs, etc.
viper family.Sizes and colors
Aspid - it's an amazing snake!The length of the body most of the family members ranges from 40 centimeters to 4 meters.For example, Arizona snake stretched to 60 centimeters, and the so-called black mamba - up to 3.8 meters.The body color of these snakes may be different, but often it is of two types.For example, wood and terrestrial species of asps (cobras, mambas, vipers) painted mostly in monochrome gray, brown, green or sand color.
But there are species which are vague and even ambiguous tone.For small and burrowing species of venomous snakes can be painted in the color of coral or even to have a bright contrasting pattern of red, yellow, black and alternating rings.By the way, this painting is directly indicative of the toxicity of its owner.Many species of tree frogs, similar to an orange-colored light green in color, represent a serious threat to wild animals.
tooth structure poisonous asps
As mentioned above, the snake - a snake, with its deadly poison.All species of this family, without exception, are toxic.Lethal substance is in their teeth.Let's learn how to look like the legendary Teeth of poisonous snakes - vipers.To begin with, there are two: paired teeth are arranged on the anterior end of the maxillary bone, which has considerably shortened form.
two teeth much larger than the rest and have a distinctive shape: they are folded back and are equipped with yadoprovodyaschim channel, from which the victim's blood is injected deadly poison.It should be noted that the fangs all members of the family are quite primitive aspidovyh as arranged fixedly in the oral cavity.
most primitive species of snakes are in the mouth for 8 to 15 small Zubikov located on the upper jaw, but most of their relatives still have 3-5 teeth.It is noteworthy that such aggressive asps, as African mambas, all of the top small teeth (except for the two toxic) have ceased to exist in their own evolution.
asps mythology
As mentioned above, the snake - is not only representative of this family of venomous snakes, but the mythological monster described in the Biblical tradition.In this case, the word "Aspid" will be used as a proper name, and therefore written with a capital letter.We recall that according to legend, the serpent ravaging the neighborhood, taking with them the cattle and people.Kill it can only fire because Aspid is not Burning being.
According to legend, an adder can one ear pressed to the ground, and the other plugging his tail.Why would he need?The fact that the mythological Aspid - is as much a snake (or dragon) as the current reptiles, so it is easy to put into a trance by means of certain spells.Not to listen to exorcists, he plugs his ears.In Russian folklore serpent Asp compared with the Serpent Gorynych and horrible basilisk.Some folklorists still identify with this character is a two-meter Egyptian cobra, which Queen Cleopatra poisoned herself.