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Venomous Colubrids question about fang placement
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by GlennBartley on August 9, 2002
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I recently saw someone on another site, post an answer saying that colubrids are not venomous. I realize that there are indeed some venomous colubrids, and some are dangerous. Can someone please tell me if any venomous colubrids are front fanged? If so which are front fanged? Thanks very much.
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RE: Venomous Colubrids question about fang placeme
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by fizzbob7 on August 9, 2002
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from what i know without looking anything up the only venomous colubrids are rear fanged...boomslangs are one of them....i dont know it all though....
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RE: Venomous Colubrids question about fang placeme
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by Naja_oxiana on August 9, 2002
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Hi Glen,
There are two families of venomous snakes which are exclusivly front-fanged: Elapids (cobras, mambas, corals) and Vipers (true vipers and pit-vipers). There is another family, the Atractaspididae, which includes Homoroselaps which used to be thought to be an Elapid due to fang structure, and Atractaspis (Stileto snakes or mole vipers), which is hinge-fanged like a viper but uses the fangs differently in it's predation stratagy. (I am of the opinion that they evolved separatly from vipers.) There is a monotypic genus, macrelaps (Natal Black Snake), iirc, which is rear-fanged. I am suprised that it is not considered a colubrid.
Colubridae is sort of the landfill for snakes and there are quite a few snakes which will be broken down into other families with further research, especially as microbiological research becomes more useful to taxonomists. Colubrids may or may not be rear-fanged. Only a few are generally percieved to be of clinical significance.
Front-fanged may be a bit of a misnomer as the fangs may be quite far back in the mouth. All this really means is that the fangs are the first--sometimes the only--teeth on the maxilla. Rear-fanged snakes may have their fangs quite close to the front of their maxilla, but there will be teeth in front of the fang. Aditionally, you risk getting more fangs in you from a rear-fanged snake. IIRC, a boomslang has three pairs of fangs that it can chew with. This is due to the nature of their envenomation system.
Front-fanged snakes have a high pressure envenomation system which is designed to deposit a large amount of venom very quickly. (This is most efficient in vipers, but elapids can deliver a fair amount of venom despite the shorter fangs and different strike.) Rear-fanged snakes have a low pressure system. This is due to the fact that the venom ducts do not connect to a hollow fang as it does in the front-fanged snakes. Rather, the venom duct open at the bast of a fang that may be grooved and the snake must chew and leak the venom into the wound. Thus it is to their advantage to have more than two usable fangs.
Cheers
Roger
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