It was Saturday, April 22, 2023, a very hot day. I wanted to dissect something today because I didn't have much else to do in the heat. I went outside but didn't expect to find anything. Then, I saw it. A small dead snake on the road. It'd been run over. I looked up to see if I could find the culprit, and I saw a golf cart driving away.
“Mom, Mom! I found a snake!” I yelled.
“Is it alive or dead?” my mom responded.
“Dead,” I said.
She came to take a closer look and confirmed it was dead. Then, she got out her phone and used an app to identify the species of snake. After a few seconds, we found out it had been a Rough Earth Snake. They are nonvenomous and common in Georgia. These snakes only grow to 7-10 inches as adults, so they are always small.
"I'll go get the alcohol and some gloves,” I said.
Mom followed behind me.
“What are you doing? You have to watch the snake so it doesn't get run over again,” I said.
If the snake got run over for a second time, it could damage the organs, which would make it impossible to dissect.
“No way. Plus, do you even know where the gloves are?” said Mom.
“Good point,” I replied.
I grabbed a stick and flung the snake out of the road. Soon after that, Mom returned with the container of alcohol, and I plopped the snake into it.
The alcohol is used to clean out any smaller organisms in the snake and used to kill off bacteria that could make you sick. You should still wear gloves even after dipping the snake in alcohol, just to be safe.
I went inside and got my tools ready. I plucked the snake from the alcohol and placed it in the middle of my dissection tray. Then, I made the first cut from the tip of its tail all the way to the neck with my small scalpel. After that, I pinned down the scales. They were thin, and I didn't have to cut deep to be able to see the organs.
Snakes need their scales to protect themselves, but snake’s scales get in the way during dissection, which makes it challenging to see the organs.
I continued this process until I had pinned down all the snakes scales, and could see all the organs. Most of a snake's inside is taken up by the stomach because snakes eat big prey and have to stretch out their stomach to digest. At the bottom of the snake were the intestines, plus some other small organs that kept the snake alive.
Some of the most important adaptations of a snake include their flexible jaw for gulping down prey, and forked tongue which helps them smell better.
There were to be about seven lumps in this snake where the stomach should have been.
Could these be eggs? I excitedly wondered. I searched for a picture of a snake egg on my phone, and the picture looked almost the same!
Snake eggs in a mothers womb, are similar to a small version of a chicken egg, but they are more gooey because they would never get as hard as a bird egg. Snakes usually have between ten and twenty eggs, but because it was a small snake, it had a normal amount of eggs.
This was a mother snake with seven eggs inside! I was so excited.
“Do you know what gender this snake is?” I asked Mom after running up the stairs.
“What gender?” she said.
“A female with seven eggs!!!” I practically shouted with excitement.
“Wow,” Mom said, amazed.
I went back downstairs and looked at the snake. I decided to look inside the eggs. I used my tweezers to grab one of the eggs and made a cut with the same scalpel I had used to cut the scales.
The first stage of developing snake eggs is that the snakes have to mate. Then, the snake eggs start developing until they are almost ready to hatch. The mother snake lifts her tail, and out come the eggs. Finally, the baby snakes have a special tooth that they use to poke out of the egg.
After a few more minutes of poking around and inspecting the organs, I threw the snake remains into the forest behind my house. Then, I dipped the tools in alcohol.
Dipping tools in alcohol helps keep them clean.
This was such a good experience, I just had to write about it. Even though I was a little sad that the snake died, I still used this as a learning experience. Thank you for reading all the way to the end!