About Vipers, Family Viperidae

About Vipers, Family Viperidae Vipers (Viperidae) are a group of snakes known for their long fangs and venomous bite. Vipers include true vipers, bush vipers, rattlesnakes, pit vipers, adders and night adders. Venomous Fangs The fangs of vipers are long and hollow and enable the snake to inject venom into animals that it bites. Venom is produced by and stored in glands located at the back of the snakes upper jaw. When the snakes mouth is closed, the fangs recede into a thin membrane and fold against the roof of the snakes mouth. When a viper bites its victim, the bones of the jaw rotate and flex so that the mouth opens at a wide gape angle and the fangs unfold at the last moment. When the snake bites down, muscles that encase the venom glands contract, squeezing venom out through ducts in the fangs and into their prey. Types of Venom Several different types of venom are produced by the various species of vipers. Proteases consist of enzymes that break down proteins. These enzymes cause a variety of effects in bite victims including pain, swelling, bleeding, necrosis, and disruption of the clotting system. Elapid venoms contain neurotoxins. These substances disable prey by disabling muscle control and causing paralysis. Proteolytic venoms contain neurotoxins to immobilize prey as well as enzymes that break down molecules in the victims body. Head Shape Vipers have a triangular-shaped head. This shape accommodates the venom glands at the back of the jaw. Most vipers are slender to stout-bodied snakes with a short tail. Most species have eyes with elliptical pupils that can open wide or close down very narrowly. This enables the snakes to see in a wide range of light conditions. Some vipers have keeled scales- scales with a ridge in their center- while others have smooth scales. 26 Types There are currently about 26 species of vipers that are considered vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. Some of the rarest vipers include the golden lancehead and the Mt. Bulgar viper. Like most snakes, vipers appear not to care for young after hatching. Most species of vipers give birth to live young but there are a few species that lay eggs. Vipers occur in terrestrial habitats throughout North, Central and South America as well as in Africa, Europe, and Asia. There are no vipers native to Madagascar or Australia. They prefer terrestrial and arboreal habitats. The range of vipers extends further north and further south than any other group of snakes. Vipers feed on a variety of small animal prey including small mammals and birds. Classification Vipers belong to the snake family. Snakes are among the most recently evolved of the main reptile lineages alive today. Their evolutionary history remains somewhat murky, though- their delicate skeletons do not preserve well and as a result, few fossil remains of ancient snakes have been recovered. The earliest known snake is Lapparentophis defense which is estimated to have lived about 130 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous. The viper family includes about 265 species. Vipers are classified into one of four groups: Azemiopinae: Feas viperCausinae: night addersCrotalinae: pit vipersViperinae: true vipers The Viperinae, also known as the Old World vipers, are short and stocky snakes. They have a wide, triangular head and rough, keeled scales. Their coloration is dull or cryptic providing them with good camouflage. Most members of this group give birth to live young. Pit vipers are distinct from other vipers due to a pair of heat-sensitive pits located on either side their face between the eyes and nostrils. Pit vipers include the worlds largest viper, the bushmaster, a snake native to Central and South American rainforests. The bushmaster can grow as long as 10 feet. Of all vipers, the rattlesnakes are among the most easily recognized. Rattlesnakes have a rattle-like structure at the end of their tail formed out of old layers of the terminal scale that do not fall off when the snake molts. When shaken, the rattle serves as a warning signal to other animals.

Quotes From the Novel Great Expectations

Quotes From the Novel Great Expectations We can learn a bit more about the life and experiences of Charles Dickens by reading his semi-autobiographical novel, Great Expectations. Of course, the facts are immersed in fiction, which is part of what makes the novel such a masterpiece. The novel follows life and misadventures of Pip, the orphaned protagonist from his encounter with an escaped convict as a child to  his eventual happy ever after with the woman he loves. The novel has been popular since its original serialized publication in 1860. Great Expectations Quotes Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations.Take another glass of wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying ones glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on ones nose.Mrs. Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself.It was understood that nothing of a tender nature could possibly be confided to old Barley, by reason of his being totally unequal to the consideration of any subject more psychological than gout, rum, and pursers stores.That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would neve r have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day. I never had one hours happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death.So now, as an infallible way of making little ease great ease, I began to contract a quantity of debt.It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. Theres no better rule.Some medical beast had revived tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence.We spent as much money as we could, and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acqua intance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one. All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretenses did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody elses manufacture, is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make, as good money!In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of the earth, overlying our hard hearts.So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my best friends.And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness f or this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world? Source All Quotes - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

The effects of Type 2 diabetes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The effects of Type 2 diabetes - Essay Example 3.  Was there appropriateness in the design used in the research in establishing preciseness in the study’s aims?The semistructured design of the study influences the process of amassing information from the three groups without other detrimental factors, which could emanate from controlled research designs.4.  Was there preciseness towards the researchers’ recruitment strategy in the study?The recruitment strategy approves the understanding that the researchers embraced strategic models in their choice of a sample population, and in distinguishing the various groups under the three phases. 5.  What methods ensue from the researchers’ work towards data analysis, and which measures determine the study’s inclusion of quality control?The researchers approached the study’s methodology professionally as the evidence accrued from a review on the methodological analysis implements the incremental influence of thematic criteria in understanding the le vel of tension and the percentage rate in the three groups. 6.  Was there exposure in determination of the relationships that prevailed among the scholars involved in the research and their participants?Citing to the evidence shown in the study’s topic, there is certainty that the relationships prevalent among the research teams and the sample population display in the independence and confidence born towards the collection of unbiased data. With the application of the CASP model in analysing the study’s results, it is known that the study on the prevention of type.