Why cobras have hoods

Types of Cobras. Identification of Snakes in Georgia. What Is the Life Cycle of the Cobra? Aggressive Snakes in Texas. How Dangerous Are Caribbean Scorpions? Types of Dangerous Spiders. How to Identify a Cottonmouth Snake. Georgia Oak Snakes. Body Parts of a Crocodile. Three clans of closely related snakes — African cobras, Asian cobras, and rinkhals — developed a new weapon as plan B. They fine-tuned their venom delivery kit so they could shoot a fine jet of venom from a distance at the eyes of their assailants.

The opening in the fangs of these snakes became narrow and migrated from the tip to squarely face the front, the better to target the eyes.

Their venom became less viscous for greater reach. In addition to using their venom to inject and subdue prey, spitting cobras also used it in defence. So these are mutually exclusive strategies.

Thus predatory venoms are not selected as defensive plan Bs. Supplementing their already potent arsenal with non-fatal peptides allowed these snakes to stand their ground. While many African cobras aim accurately, Asian cobras, likely being more recent innovators of this technique, are not as proficient. Some like the Chinese cobras Naja atra and monocled cobras Naja kaouthia spit only on rare occasions.

Instead they developed startling eye-like markings on the back of their broad and round hoods like our spectacled and monocled cobras Naja naja and Naja kaouthia. The researchers tested the potency of the cytotoxins against healthy and cancerous cell lines. Red-spitting cobras dispense with markings in favour of a scarlet coloration. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Indochinese cobras Naja siamensis and snouted cobras Naja annulifera developed startling black and white bands that serve the same purpose as the warning hood marks.

Similarly, the more scarlet the snake, like red spitting cobras Naja pallida , the more startling to predators. All these species that possess warning markings, bands, and colours have high cytotoxicity.

These snakes cannot hold their fangs down on prey so they inject venom through their fangs, according to the San Diego Zoo. They have an excellent sense of smell and night vision. In addition to their trademark hoods, cobras have round pupils and smooth scales.

Colors vary widely from species to species. There are red, yellow, black, mottled, banded and many other colors and patterns of cobra. Cobras are large snakes; many species reach more than 6 feet long 2 meters. The smallest species is the Mozambique spitting cobra, which is about 4 feet long 1. King cobras, the longest of all venomous snakes, can reach 18 feet 5. According to Cobras by Sylvia A. Johnson Lerner, , cobras typically live in hot, tropical areas but are also found in savannahs, grasslands, forests and farming areas in Africa and Southern Asia.

They like to spend time underground, under rocks and in trees. Most cobras can stand as tall as a third of their body length. Image credit: Wikipedia. More information: The functional morphology of hooding in cobras, First published online April 16, , Journal of Experimental Biology , , doi This document is subject to copyright.

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