Snake olfactory sense is vastly superior. They can use their forked tongue to smell in "3d" and pinpoint a source exactly. It's their main hunting mechanism.
Wait... Here I thought the nostrils on the snake were where they smelled from. I can swear they have nostrils. Is it some kind of sonar tongue? How's it getting the 3D. Whatever your response is I will believe for the rest of my life because I am not going to verify it
Snakes have something called Jacobson's organ, which is basically two cavities inside their nasal area, where they actually insert the two tines of their forked tongues after having "smelled" by performing the characteristic tongue flick. They can then decipher the olfactory molecules of whatever prey they're trying to track and be able to form a sort of 3d map in their head of where it's located, provided it's close enough of course.
5 replies
Snake olfactory sense is vastly superior. They can use their forked tongue to smell in "3d" and pinpoint a source exactly. It's their main hunting mechanism.
Wait... Here I thought the nostrils on the snake were where they smelled from. I can swear they have nostrils. Is it some kind of sonar tongue? How's it getting the 3D. Whatever your response is I will believe for the rest of my life because I am not going to verify it
Snakes have something called Jacobson's organ, which is basically two cavities inside their nasal area, where they actually insert the two tines of their forked tongues after having "smelled" by performing the characteristic tongue flick. They can then decipher the olfactory molecules of whatever prey they're trying to track and be able to form a sort of 3d map in their head of where it's located, provided it's close enough of course.
Much like how having two ears allows our brains to spatially map out sounds in 3d. Thats really neat, I didn't know that.
TIL: flies have antennae.