Phenomena

Snake Tracks

A snake and its tracks.

Moving across sand is quite challenging for bipedal creatures like us, but other animals have their ways. Photographer Paul Lennart Schmid caught this snake on the move, with impressions of its passage still in the sand. X-ray observations of snakes moving in sand show that they swim through the granular medium. Snakes are quite efficient in their swimming, moving most of their body through the tunnel created by their head, thereby reducing their overall effort. (Image credit: P. Schmid; via Nature TTL POTY)

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