Rattlesnake's Scales Help Them Sip Water From Their Bodies - FaunaClassifieds
FaunaClassifieds  
  Tired of those Google and InfoLink ads? Upgrade Your Membership!
  Inside FaunaClassifieds » Photo Gallery  
 

Go Back   FaunaClassifieds > Reptile & Amphibian - General Discussion Forums > Herps In The News

Notices

Herps In The News Local or national articles where reptiles or amphibians have made it into the news media. Please cite sources.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-11-2020, 09:52 PM   #1
bcr229
Rattlesnake's Scales Help Them Sip Water From Their Bodies

This is pretty cool to watch.

https://scitechdaily.com/rattlesnake...how-video/amp/

During storms in the southwestern U.S., some rattlesnakes drink rain droplets from scales on their backs. This unusual behavior could help them survive in a desert environment with infrequent rain. Now, researchers have figured out how the nanotexture of scales from these snakes helps them use their bodies to harvest rain. They report their results in ACS Omega.

The western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) from southern Arizona and other areas of the U.S. Southwest has been seen emerging from its den to harvest rain, sleet, and even snow. The snake flattens its body and often forms a tight coil, presumably to maximize the area for water-gathering. As rain droplets coalesce on its back, the slithery reptile sucks water from the scales. Gordon Schuett, Konrad Rykaczewski and colleagues wanted to take a closer look at rattlesnake scales to determine what makes these serpents so adept at harvesting precipitation.

The researchers compared the surface wettability and nanotexture of scales from the western diamondback rattlesnake and two other species of desert-dwelling snakes that do not show rain-harvesting behavior: the desert kingsnake and the Sonoran gopher snake. The team dropped water onto the snakes’ backs, finding that the droplets beaded up, coalesced and stuck to the rattlesnake’s scales, whereas they formed shallow puddles that often slipped off the other snakes’ bodies. Scanning electron microscopy of rattlesnake scales revealed nanochannels that form a labyrinth-like network, but scales from the other two snakes did not show these same features. The rattlesnake’s dorsal scales aid in water collection by providing a sticky, hydrophobic surface that “pins” water droplets to the surface, the researchers say.

Reference: “Role of Scale Wettability on Rain-Harvesting Behavior in a Desert-Dwelling Rattlesnake” by Akshay Phadnis, Kenneth C. Manning, Gordon W. Schuett and Konrad Rykaczewski, 3 December 2019, ACS Omega.
DOI: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.9b02557

The authors acknowledge funding from the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University.
 
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies JColt General BS forum 3 04-25-2017 04:37 PM
Bodies Exhibit - What do you think? Interesting or Not? Mooing Tricycle General BS forum 9 02-08-2008 09:36 AM
Disposing of the bodies Junkyard General Herp Talk 12 08-09-2006 09:23 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:27 PM.







Fauna Top Sites


Powered by vBulletin® Version
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Page generated in 0.07990789 seconds with 10 queries
Content copyrighted ©2002-2022, FaunaClassifieds, LLC