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Flying snakes?; we DO have some glideing snakes...
Topic Started: Apr 15 2010, 05:19 PM (864 Views)
sam999
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What do you think?
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Pando
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I don't think something can fly with those wings. At least not in this atmosphere.
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That thing would have to do a lot of flapping to keep airborne. Or be really really small.
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Carlos
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Without limbs, it cannot fly. Snakes, thus, will never take off
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Heavily derived ribs could work, but such a rib would have to be both mobile and possess strong muscles for flapping flight.
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Zorku
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Well no, they could fly, but you would need to override bilateral symmetry. If they were different on the left and right sides you could produce the mechanical wing shape and then the snake would need to do most of its bending at the middle.

Very impractical I'm sure but mechanically possible I think.
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Moontanman
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For a snake to fly add it still be a snake as we would define it the atmosphere would either have to be much thicker or the snake would at least have to be warm blooded, this would imply either feathers or fur. I'm not sure would say it's impossible but if a snake could fly, could it fly after a full meal? Hard to be flat with a bulge in your middle.
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It'd probably live in a very warm place.
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Hmm... perhaps an evolution of the Golden Tree Snake? The picture wouldn't work (though, I give it high points for cool) but, as said, an asymmetrical body plan could work. A golden Tree Snake already glides and uses a winding motion to stabilize itself, I can see it adapting to form with very limited flight if it doesn't go extinct. But both are big ifs.
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Margaret Pye
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Large flying animals (as in, bigger than a sparrow) have to be rather globular to pack in enough muscle and get the centre of gravity right, and have very stiff spines. The elongated-rib concept might work for a gliding tree snake, but "powered flight" and "snake" are not natural bedfellows outside fantasy.
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KayKay
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Or perhaps just outside the fringes of fantasy? Even what you say could happen with a fattening of the centre but there would need to be the correct environmental pressures, of which are likely to never happen on this world in this reality, at least not without the snakes going extinct.

But that's just likely to never happen. It could still happen, but pigs may learn to fly first.
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Zorku
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Maybe like this?
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Pando
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So that's where Fakey had is old avatar from...
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Moontanman
Apr 15 2010, 06:06 PM
For a snake to fly add it still be a snake as we would define it the atmosphere would either have to be much thicker or the snake would at least have to be warm blooded, this would imply either feathers or fur. I'm not sure would say it's impossible but if a snake could fly, could it fly after a full meal? Hard to be flat with a bulge in your middle.
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Kamidio
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Then it would be a different lizard descendant, as snakes lost their legs because they dig. To keep two arms, they'd have to be a different lizard, like the mososaur. And even then we can't call them snakes.
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