Snakes are elongated, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes[2] that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To allow their narrow bodies, snakes’ paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in-front of the other instead of side by side, and have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle along with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Living snakes tend to be found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most smaller land masses; exceptions include some large islands, such as Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, the Hawaiian archipelago, and the islands of the latest Zealand, and many small islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific rich waters. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A great deal more 20 families are currently recognized, comprising about 500 genera and about 3,400 species.They range in size from the tiny, 14.4 cm (4.1 in)-long thread snake[6] to tahe reticulated python of 6.95 meters (22.8 ft) in length
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