BIO/101
Organism Physiology Paper
Every organism is different and has different physical attributes that allow them to survive in their habitat. Organisms can range from an animal, fungus, micro-organism, or plant. Some organisms have tick fur to deal with the cold winter as where some need the sun to survive. Evolution has given organisms their physiology to survive. Snakes as well as many reptiles have a unique physiology compared to other animals or organism. This paper will cover a snakes physiology and how it is suited to its environment.
A snakes sense organs are different from other animals. Some animals use their eyesight and their hearing, whereas snakes rely on their sense of touch and smell. They do not have moveable eye lids like a bird would have, instead they have transparent caps called brille that protect their eyes. …show more content…
Animals use their nasal passages and nostrils to smell, snakes have nasal pass and nostrils but use their tongues as a smelling device. There is a small organ on the roof of the snakes mouth called the vemeronasal organ. The snakes fork shaped tongue picks up air particles and puts them into contact with the vemeronasal organ. This lets the snake perceive or identify the smell as a predator, prey, or something else. The snakes tongue is not used to taste or help with eating but only as a smelling organ.
Some snakes have a sixth sense that other animals do not have. These snakes have special pits between their eyes and nostrils. The pits are used to sense temperature changes as inferred rays to aid them in locating warm blooded animals such as a rat. There are two chambers in a pit, the interior and the exterior chamber. The interior chamber is the snakes temperature as where the exterior chamber heats up when it is near to heat source. The chambers are accurate enough to detect a change in temperature as little as 0.0002