page_title: Snake scale
section_title: Surface and shape
hierarchical_section_title: Snake scale / Morphology of scales / Surface and shape
context_page_description: Snakes, like other reptiles, have skin covered in scales. Snakes are entirely covered with scales or scutes of various shapes and sizes, known as snakeskin as a whole. A scale protects the body of the snake, aids it in locomotion, allows moisture to be retained within, alters the surface characteristics such as roughness to aid in camouflage, and in some cases even aids in prey capture. The simple or complex colouration patterns are a property of the underlying skin, but the folded nature of scaled skin allows bright skin to be concealed between scales then revealed in order to startle predators.
  Scales have been modified over time to serve other functions such as 'eyelash' fringes, and protective covers for the eyes with the most distinctive modification being the rattle of the North American rattlesnakes.
  Snakes periodically moult their scaly skins and acquire new ones. This permits replacement of old worn out skin, disposal of parasites and is thought to allow the snake to grow. The arrangement of scales is used to identify snake species.
  Snakes have been part and parcel of culture and religion. Vivid scale patterns have been thought to have influenced early art.
context_section_description: Snake scales are of different shapes and sizes.  Snake scales may be granular, have a smooth surface or have a longitudinal ridge or keel on it. Often, snake scales have pits, tubercles and other fine structures which may be visible to the naked eye or under a microscope. Snake scales may be modified to form fringes, as in the case of the eyelash bush viper, Atheris ceratophora, or rattles as in the case of the rattlesnakes of North America.
  Certain primitive snakes such as boas, pythons and certain advanced snakes such as vipers have small scales arranged irregularly on the head. Other more advanced snakes have special large symmetrical scales on the head called shields or plates.
  Snake scales occur in variety of shapes. They may be cycloid as in family Typhlopidae, long and pointed with pointed tips, as in the case of the green vine snake Ahaetulla nasuta, broad and leaf-like, as in the case of green pit vipers Trimeresurus spp. or as broad as they are long, for example, as in rat snake Ptyas mucosus.
  In some cases, scales may be keeled weakly or strongly as in the case of the buff-striped keelback Amphiesma stolatum. They may have  bidentate tips as in some spp of Natrix. Some snakes, such as the short seasnake Lapemis curtus, may have spinelike and juxtaposed scales while others may have large and non-overlapping knobs as in the case of the Javan mudsnake Xenodermus javanicus.
  Another example of differentiation of snake scales is a transparent scale called the brille or spectacle which covers the eye of the snake. The brille is often referred to as a fused eyelid. It is shed as part of the old skin during moulting.
caption: Cycloid scales on Leptotyphlops humilis and other blind snake species are fluorescent, as a result when they are put under low frequency ultraviolet light (black light) they glow.
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