A snake's skeleton is also designed to allow it to swallow prey much larger than itself. Loosely attached jaws, expanding ribs, and no breastbone enable snakes to swallow large prey. Scales From head to Tail Like all reptiles, snakes are covered in overlapping dry scales. Their eyes are covered by clear, bubble-like scales called spectacles. Scales give the skin remarkable flexibility, allowing the body to stretch in order to swallow surprisingly large prey.
Scales contain pigments that give snakes their colors and patterns.
Making Sense of the World Like all animals, snakes depend on their senses to help them get around, find food, avoid enemies, and even find a mate. Unlike us, snakes rely much more on smell and touch than on sight and hearing. Smell is a snake's most important sense. Although it can smell through its nose, a snake also uses its ever-moving forked tongue to locate prey and find its way. Odors are sampled by flicking out the tongue and retracting it across a special organ in the mouth called a Sacoloson's organ, which detects and analyzes the molecules chemically.