Kinematics of strikes in venomous snakes.

ABSTRACT: Venomous snakes owe their evolutionary success in part to the effectiveness of their strike. The success of a strike depends on reaching the prey quickly before it startles and has the chance to escape. Here, we present the first ever large-scale experiment comparing strike performance across 36 venomous snake species from three families (31 Viperidae, 4 Elapidae and 1 Colubridae). We used two high-speed video cameras (1000 frames s-1) to capture strikes at a ballistics gel prey and tracked the strike trajectory in three dimensions. The 3D coordinates were used to measure strike kinematics and performance. Kinematic performance was compared within Viperidae across predation style, diel activity pattern, diet, habitat type, temperature and first jaw contact with prey. Kinematic variables (p

SUBMITTER: Cleuren SGC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12582407 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature