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Sidewinder — printable fact sheet
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Sidewinder
Crotalus cerastes
The sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes) is a small rattlesnake of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, rarely exceeding 80 centimetres, and it moves in a way that is easy to admire and hard to explain. In sidewinding, only two short sections of the body touch the ground at any moment whil…
Did you know?
- Unlike most rattlesnakes, sidewinders lay eggs that hatch inside the female's body, giving birth to live young in a process called ovoviviparity.
- A sidewinder's track is not a continuous line but a row of separated J-shapes, and the direction of the hook tells you which way the snake was going. Sidewinding is not unique to this snake; several unrelated desert vipers in Africa and the Middle East evolved the same gait independently. The horns over the eyes are hinged and fold flat when the snake burrows. Sidewinders can move surprisingly fast for a rattlesnake, and their gait has been directly copied by search-and-rescue robots designed to cross rubble and sand.
What I learned
Draw the sidewinder
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