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You know, Good point.... thanks for correcting that! I dont really know WHERE i got the colubrid bit from * i may have seen them called colubrids randomly on the web?* . I was just kinda... going with it, there. *shrugs*
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Well, they're in a weird place on the snake family tree that doesn't really accord well with any terms we commonly use. Even "primitive snake" isn't technically right, since no animal is truly primitive (they've all been evolving for exactly the same length of time), but can have primitive traits. But "A snake with primitive osteological and anatomical characters" is a bit of a mouthful.
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I knew they were not like typical snakes that you find elsewhere due to the way the skull is "put together" and such.
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Here's a link you may like:
Full 3D animations of a CAT scanned sunbeam snake skull
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I believe the word most people use is Fossorial ( at least all the pages that DO have information on them, which, to be honest is seriously lacking!). Which, makes sense. There should be more studies on them... theyre awesome animals, remind me of the Eastern Mud snakes kinda sorta.
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Well, fossorial technically refers to their burrowing (hence the similarity to mud snakes).
As for studies, Nate Kley from SUNY Stonybrook has been using them (along with a wide assortment of other snakes) in his research on feeding. Apparently they're capable of far more jaw expansion than you'd think with a skull like theirs, almost as much as some pythons.
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maybe in the summer ill get a nice big girl and get her all acclimated and such. I want to make sure i get one thats big like this guy. Then im going to be doing some serious research as to the climates where they live, and seeing if i can find out when people find eggs there * or babies at least* and going from there. I want to try to mimic everything i can for them over here.
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Let me know if you find a scientific paper you need access to; I can get most of the journals in pdf format.
Unfortunately, some guesswork may be involved - a lot of fossorial snakes don't have much fieldwork done on them.
Mokele