Snakes. The Evolution Of Mystery In Nature

This is a book about some of nature's most alluring and forbidding creatures, written by a man with an abiding passion for snakes, as well as for science, conservation, and the beauty and complexity of nature. Snakes inhabit all major ecosystems outside of the polar regions and are among the Most common predators on other vertebrates. More than 2,700 species of snakes are currently recognized, placed in about 420 genera and 18 families. Using science and art as mutual pathways to understanding, author Harry W. Greene and photographers Michael and Patricia Fogden combine their unique talents to explore the beauty and intrigue of these animals. This comprehensive overview of snakes, packed with up-to-date details of their biology and their environments, will interest general readers as well as professional biologists, serious naturalists, and herpetoculturists. Eight chapters are devoted to general topics in snake biology, including anatomy, feeding, venoms, predation and defense, social behavior, reproduction, evolution, and conservation; eight chapters survey the major groups of snakes, including blindsnakes, boas and other relatively primitive snakes, colubrids, stiletto snakes, cobras, seasnakes, and vipers. Details of particular interest, such as coralsnake mimicry and the evolution of facial pits and the rattle, are highlighted as special topics. A bibliography of more than eight hundred references provides an extensive introduction to the literature on snakes. Each chapter opens with an essay that considers the subject from a more personal perspective. Anecdotes and reflections range from Greenes walk in the Mojave Desert after his father's death to the attitudes of bird-watchers toward snakes and the historical symbolism of rattlesnakes in the appreciation of nature. Together these essays form a second, smaller book that runs through the main text, leading to the Epilogue and Greene's answer to the question, Why snakes? Michael and Patricia Fogden are known internationally for their outstanding nature photography. Their superior technical skills and background as zoologists give them a rare ability to fuse art with natural history, and their stunning color photographs are a brilliant complement to Greene's text. Together, Greene and the Fogdens reveal the beauty of "the evolution of mystery in nature."