Sidewinding

Article summary

Sidewinding is a type of locomotion unique to snakes, used to move across loose or slippery substrates. It is most often used by the Saharan horned viper, Cerastes cerastes, the Mojave sidewinder rattlesnake, Crotalus cerastes, and the Namib desert sidewinding adder, Bitis peringueyi, to move across loose desert sands, and also by Homalopsine snakes in Southeast Asia to move across tidal mud flats. Any number of caenophidian snakes can be induced to sidewind on smooth surfaces, though the difficulty in getting them to do so and their proficiency at it vary greatly. The method of movement is derived from lateral undulation, and is very similar, in spite of appearances. A picture of a snake performing lateral undulation would show something like a sine wave, with straight segments of the body having either a positive or negative slope. Sidewinding is accomplished by undulating vertically as well as laterally, with the head tracing out an ellipse in a vertical plane nearly perpendicular to the direction of movement and with all the segments that have a significantly non-zero slope (and alternating segments that have a zero slope) lifted off the ground. The ventral scales of sidewinding snakes are short and have small, microscopic holes in them to reduce friction, as opposed to the more spike-shaped ones of other snakes.…

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