The endemic Sri Lankan subspecies of rock python, Python molurus pimbura is the largest snake found in Lanka. Though distributed island wide, it listed as Near Threatened due to rapid population decline. This a common victim illegal trade (as pets and for skin/meat). prey items python are poorly documented, but not unusual them take difficult such porcupines. In India, Bhupathy & Vijayan (1...

Ophionyssus natricis is a purely blood sucking parasite of snakes and of worldwide distribution. Infected snakes often exhibit lethargy, pruritus, crusting dermatitis, and behavioral changes. Ophionyssus natricis can also attack humans, causing popular vesiculo-bullous eruption of the skin. A 29 years old man working in zoo, Sari, Mazandaran, Iran, presented itchy papullar eruption of the skin....

Mammalian IgG and IgE are thought to have evolved from IgY of nonmammalian tetrapods; however, no diversification of IgY subclasses has been reported in reptiles or birds, which are phylogenetically close to mammals. To our knowledge, we report the first evidence of the presence of multiple IgY-encoding (υ) genes in snakes. Two υ genes were identified in the snake Elaphe taeniura, and three υ g...

The adaptive interplay between feeding habits and digestive physiology is demonstrated by the Burmese python, which in response to feeding infrequently has evolved the capacity to widely regulate gastrointestinal performance with feeding and fasting. To explore the generality of this physiological trait among pythons, we compared the postprandial responses of metabolism and both intestinal morp...

A well-established population of Burmese pythons resides in the Everglades of southern Florida. Prompted in part by a report that identified much of southern USA as suitable habitat for expansion or establishment of the Burmese python, we examined the plausibility of this snake to survive winters at sites north of the Everglades. We integrated daily low and high temperatures recorded from Octob...

Color variation provides the opportunity to investigate the genetic basis of evolution and selection. Reptiles are less studied than mammals. Comparative genomics approaches allow for knowledge gained in one species to be leveraged for use in another species. We describe a comparative vertebrate analysis of conserved regulatory modules in pythons aimed at assessing bioinformatics evidence that ...

At the gastroesophageal junction, most vertebrates possess a functional lower esophageal sphincter (LES) which may serve to regulate the passage of liquids and food into the stomach and prevent the reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus. Snakes seemingly lack an LES and consume meals large enough to extend anteriorly from the stomach into the esophagus thereby providing the opportunity f...

BACKGROUND Telomere length (TL) has been found to be associated with life span in birds and humans. However, other studies have demonstrated that TL does not affect survival among old humans. Furthermore, replicative senescence has been shown to be induced by changes in the protected status of the telomeres rather than the loss of TL. In the present study we explore whether age- and sex-specifi...

Phylogenetic analysis of two species snake Eryx colubrinus loveridgei and Ptyas mucosus was investigated using the gene encoding cytochrome b. The nucleotide sequences complete partial mtDNA b were determined in numerous specimens. Sequence divergence between genera evenly distributed but rather high compared to reports for other fish species. analyses on used study relationships among consider...

The photoreceptors and visual pigments of Python regius were studied using microspectrophotometry and scanning electron microscopy. The retina contains rods and cones, with rods constituting at least 90 % of the photoreceptor population. The rods are of a single type with long, narrow outer segments and are tightly packed. The wavelength of maximum absorbance ( &lgr; max) of the visual pigment ...