#snake fangs

[snoopymyung]

[delusionalpuffball]

[steampunkserpent27]

are you yawning or trying to kill me? 

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Do Snakes Believe in the Tooth Fairy?

When a child loses a baby tooth, the Tooth Fairy will sneakily appear a short time later to snatch that tooth up and leave behind a little treat. But what happens when vipers or other snakes with large fangs lose their teeth? I doubt the Tooth Fairy would be too keen about sneaking up on a sleeping snake…and as someone who studies and admires snakes, I would not recommend it!

Vials containing Viperidae snake fangs. The middle vial (with clear lid) contains fangs of the Gaboon viper.

I recently learned the answer to this question when I was given seven tiny vials containing dozens of fangs. These fangs came from various species of snakes in the Viperidae family, including the Mojave green rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus), the Northern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus), and the Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica), which has the longest fangs of any snake species. The researcher who gifted us these fangs was curious about the outcome of shed snake teeth and wanted to determine how frequently snake fangs may be swallowed and passed through the snake’s digestive tract. To answer this question, he dissected and examined dried snake feces for the possible presence of shed fangs.*

As it turns out, snakes will occasionally swallow their shed fangs! Vipers are carnivores that have to hunt down and subdue live prey in order to eat and survive. Often there is a struggle between predator and prey and, in that process, a fang may be wiggled lose. Instead of falling out of a snake’s mouth, the snake may swallow the fang along with the prey item. The fang will ultimately pass through the snake’s digestive system and emerge in its feces.

Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus) in the Mojave Desert, California. One of the vials contained fangs from this species, but from snakes in the northern portion of the species’ range.

As the collection manager of the Section of Amphibians and Reptiles, I oversee and care for the museum’s massively beautiful and useful collection of cool and creepy herpetofaunal specimens. These specimens include full body wet specimens preserved in alcohol, the osteology collection of bones and turtle shells, and other items such as histology slides, gut contents, and even fangs. Regardless of their preservation form, all the reptile and amphibian specimens within the collection are useful for researchers and could serve to answer future scientific questions. Although the fangs within these seven seemingly unimposing vials have already answered one burning scientific question, they will be added to the collection so see what other answers they can provide!

*Researchers take careful precautions when handling feces as it can carry disease. Do not handle feces you may see in the wild.

Stevie Kennedy-Gold is the collection manager for the Section of Amphibians and Reptiles at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[snakemaww]

[wandering-through-wonder-land]

Virgil, Fangs, and Snakes

Can be found on Ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15050129

Summary:

Virgil has fangs, they're new and painful and he's afraid of what the others might think, so he hides them. Comfort comes from an unlikely source in the form of one snake type side.

***

Virgil cracked his door open after the mid hours of the night had long since passed, peeking out from not only under his hood, but also from under his fringe to ensure the hallway was empty. Seeing nothing but darkness, faintly illuminated by the glowing light from three doors, he relaxed a bit, then tensed again, weighing the pros and cons of leaving his room. The cons were basically summed up in one statements: The others could find him. But then the pros….well, he needed food since he had skipped dinner.

Taking a deep breath and holding it in he began to open his door, which, unfortunately, like the rest of his room, reflected his anxiety, and creaked as he slowly opened it. He winced , knowing that if he opened it any quicker it would make a larger noise and likely attract more attention than the smaller, continuous drone of the current squeaking.

When his door was open enough to allow his slim body to pass through he stopped opening it and the horrid noise faded out into the darkness. Seeing that none of the others were up to investigate he released the breath he’d been holding and cautiously stepped out into the hall.

With hands buried in his hoodie pocket and ever careful steps he started down the hallway. God! It seems so much longer than it did usually! He held his breath each time he passed one of the doors belonging to another side, fear that they would discover him catching his lungs in a death grip. It was irrational, he told himself. This whole thing was irrational! But….he was anxiety, accepted or not, he could not change his nature. So he held his breath, and softened his already barely there steps even more, eyes fixed on the stairs at the end of the hall.

His eyes would flit to the doors he was passing briefly as a reassurance that they were closed and the room’s occupants deep in slumber, before setting once again on the stairs so near yet so far.

He passed by Roman’s room first. Golden oak marked through with colors of every shade covering the wood, yet accenting it rather than hiding it. The circular lights one might find surrounding a dressing room mirror marking its edges, their light dimmed to a warm gold in the night hours.

He thought he heard the side stir and froze mid step before his door, eyes wide in panic. Realizing it was the sounds of sleep rather than consciousness, he relaxed once more and moved forward again.

It was Logan’s door he passed next. A deep brown trimming appearing almost black in the day and much darker at night surrounding a dark wooden door unmarred by decorations. Nonetheless, it emitted an aura of soft blue light that seemed to spill from the edges, despite Virgil knowing no such light shone inside the room.

The Logical side’s room gave no sound other than the methodically ticking of a Newton’s Cradle that Logan claimed helped him focus and sleep. Virgil paused a moment to listen to it, letting the rhythmic sound calm his nerves for a moment, then moved on.

Patton’s door was the last before the five feet to the stairs, and perhaps the trickiest. True Logan tended to notice anything out of the ordinary, like doors opening and footsteps sounding late at night, and Roman would notice much the same thing and come out in search of adventure, but Patton? Patton had a sixth sense for when something was wrong, especially if one of the others had been acting out of the ordinary, and he certainly had been, what with skipping dinner and not talking much….well, talking less than usual.

Patton’s door was a light golden wood surrounded by a pastel border that bled from pink into blue and back again, creating all shades of pastel purple. Paw prints from puppies and kittens were engraved in the wood and stained dark. A soft pink light emanated from the door, much like the blue had from Logan’s, but rather than feeling cool and calming, it felt warm and comforting.

He paused at this door as he did the others and listened intently. He could he Patton’s soft breathing and the sound of a gentle music box lullaby playing to the background of soft waves.

Virgil smiled softly and moved on to the stairs. He paused at the top of them again and looked down them. Anxiety surging up again. He could just turn back now, it’d be far less risky to go back by the other three’s doors then to try going down the stairs silently. What if they heard him? What if they came to check on him? Or Princey got crazy and tried to defend them all against an intruder with his bloody katana – ignoring the fact that they couldn’t have an intruder in the mindpalace. What if they started asking questions? What if- Virgil shook his head to clear it. No. He needed to eat, and he had come too far to turn back now. Besides, he comforted himself, he knew where every squeaky step was. He could totally do this without waking anybody up.

So he started down the stairs, far more slowly than seemed possible, pausing every few moments to listen for signs that the others were waking. Eventually he came to the bottom of the stairs and headed for the kitchen, refusing to turn on a light until he was there for fear of waking anyone, and even then it was only the stove light.

Once he was sure once again that he heard nothing from upstairs he set about getting himself a sandwich and a glass of milk. Setting them at the counter beside the fridge, he opted to stand and eat, much quieter than trying to pull out a chair, he reasoned.

Dinner had been nearly five hours ago and he was starving, so he opted to try eating the sandwich first. 'Try' being the key word. In theory it should have been simple: Open mouth, place food in mouth, bite down, tear a piece off, chew, swallow, and repeat. Except it wasn’t. Because when he went to bite down his teeth hit against each other, so he didn’t bite down all the way. And because of this, when he tried to tear a piece away without closing his jaw all the way, it pulled on four teeth still sensitive due to their newness. Virgil cursed quietly in pain and set the sandwich down, staring down at the two holes in it as if they were the source of all his pains in the world. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes and reached for the glass of milk. Maybe that would be better, at least it would fill his stomach.

He brought the glass up to his mouth and started to take a drink, but hit his fangs against the glass and not only caused himself pain but also spilled the milk over the counter. Holding one hand over his hurting mouth he frantically tried to clean up the spilt milk with the other.

He heard a noise behind him and then there was a hand resting on his should gently, another in his field a vision, helping to clean up the spilled milk without the tinge of panic coloring its movements. Milk cleaned up he found himself being turned by the hand on his shoulders to meet the hetrochrome eyes of Deceit.

The naga-like side was, for once, void of his usual get up, now clothed in simple black sleep pants and a black tee shirt, a thick golden blanket around his shoulders. Seeing the side’s face free of that ridiculous hat was an odd change for Virgil, and he found it made the snake seem softer somehow. But that didn’t mean he trusted him. They had a long history, some of it good, some of it bad, but it had all been abruptly broken off when Virgil had come to fore of the mind, and now things were odd between them.

Deceit, however, seemed void of his usual snark and sneer right now, opting instead to take the hand not gently gripping Virgil’s shoulder and raise it to move the other’s hand from his mouth. Virgil made to resist that but Deceit just arched a brow lazily at him, thoroughly unimpressed, so he let it drop, keeping his mouth closed.

Deceit gently cupped Virgil’s cheek, rubbing his thumb there in a comforting gesture, and sighed softly. “Fangs?”

Virgil’s eyes widened marginally at the word, not expecting Deceit to have figured it out. Deceit just sighed again and gently used his hand to encourage Virgil to open his mouth. Once the Anxious trait had done so he gently ran his thumb along the length of one of the four points causing Virgil to flinch back. Deceit sighed again, returning his hand to rubbing Virgil’s jaw gently.

“I'm guessing you have not had them very long, hmm?”

Virgil furrowed his brow, “How?”

Deceit smiled ruefully, “You should remember that I certainly was always part snake, Virge. I certainly don't remember when mine first grew in. Nothing hurt them.”

Virgil’s eyes widened again. “You have fangs?”

Deceit smiled gently and let his fangs grow out from their usual small points where his canines should be to their full length for a moment before retracting them again. He looked at Virgil sympathetically. “You most certainly have not been hiding all day and you surely have eaten, right?”

Virgil shied away from looking at his old friend and Deceit sighed. “Don’t go sit down, Virge.”

Virgil nodded mutely and settled at the kitchen table, watching deceit retrieve two glasses of milk and his sandwich. Deceit grabbed one more thing out a drawer and sat down at the table across from Virgil.

“There certainly are not ways to make eating easier with fangs, Virgil. And they most certainly will not stop hurting in a few days.”

Virgil just nodded slightly. The snake like trait raised his hands and the contents grasped there. Two straws sat trapped between his fingers as he gazed at Virgil humorously, but not teasingly. “First lesson, straws are certainly not your friend.” He reached over and put straw in Virgil’s glass, bending it at the neck. “It won't keeps your fangs from hitting the glass. Just make sure you do bite your lip instead.”

He placed a straw in his own glass and started drinking, watching Virgil expectantly. Virgil picked up the glass and tentatively got the straw between his fangs and closed his mouth around it to drink. He winced at the coldness on his sensitive fangs but sighed in relief as the milk hit his empty stomach. Deceit smiled ruefully. “Yeah, they’re totally not gonna be really sensitive to cold and pressure for awhile. Don't give it a few days.”

Virgil tried to smile in return, without opening his mouth and trying to work around his aching fangs, it didn’t quite work, but Deceit got the message and smiled back softly. He reached over for the sandwich and pulled it in front of him, frowning down at it. “Unfortunately, the certainly is a simple way to eat, even after your fangs stop hurting, which of course they won't do. But for now it’s even better because they hurt. The worst thing to do is to tear it up into smaller pieces.”

He tore off a bit of the ham and cheese sandwich and handed it to Virgil who popped it in his mouth. He chewed awkwardly, wincing when his fangs hit his other teeth. “Putting food back by your molar is a horrid idea.”

Virgil did just that and found it a bit easier to eat. “Thanks De.”

“Of course not”

The sat in silence for awhile, Virgil did his best to tear of pieces of his sandwich and eat with as little pain as possible while Deceit made a cup of tea. When most of the sandwich and milk was gone and Deceit’s tea had started to go cold Virgil picked his head up and shyly asked a question.

“Hey De?”

“Yes Virgil?”

“How do---How --- I mea-“ Virgil bit his lip then caught his mistake as pain flared from the punctured skin.

Deceit set his cup down and leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table and leaning against them to look up at Virgil. “What is it Virge?”

Virgil looked down at the table rather than look at Deceit. “H-How do you retract them?”

Deceit looked at him sympathetically, then sighed. “Totally doesn’t depend on what kind of fangs you have Buddy.” He got up and came round the table to sit on the edge near Virgil. “Here, don’t let me see.”

Virgil tilted his head up, face all but hidden between his hood and his fringe, and opened his mouth just slightly. Deceit gently took the other’s jaw in his hand and urged it open, when it did he ran his thumb carefully over the new fangs, exploring their shape, setting, function, and type. He sighed, stroking a thumb along Virgil’s jaw comfortingly.

“They don't look like wolf teeth.” At the questioning look he continued. “You don’t have two large canines on the top and two smaller fangs on the bottom between them. They are certainly not designed for clamping onto something and tearing it apart or holding on.” He sighed again, absentmindedly stroking Virgil’s cheek again. “Unfortunately, Virgil, they are retractable.”

Virgil flinched away a bit, looking away. Deceit simply stroked his jaw comfortingly, spacing out. After a time the anxious side spoke again, voice quiet, snapping Deceit back to the present. “Wh-What about yours?”

“Hmm?”

Virgil looked up at him shyly. “What about yours? Why do they retract?”

Deceit smiled ruefully, absentmindedly raising a hand to rub at his own jaw. “They’re not snake fangs Virge.”

Virgil looked up at him, furrowing his brows, “But…..I heard Patton and Logan talking about some little green snake Thomas found outside…..It didn’t have fangs…..And when Patton asked why it ‘Didn’t have cute little fangs’, Logan went on a whole lecture…..That I didn’t really hear.”

Deceit smirked, but there was no malice in it, just fond amusement. “Only venomous snakes don't have fangs….but then, only Solenoglyphous Snakes can not fold their fangs up or retract them.”

Virgil considered this a moment and nodded his head. “Oh, ok. I guess that makes sense – Hey wait a minute!” He looked up at Deceit shrewdly, “Does that mean you have some sort of venom?”

Deceit smiled and laughed, “Caught that didn’t you?” He let his fangs fall out again and pointed to the tip of one, “Yes, I do not have a venom of sorts that I could not inject into someone by biting them.” He traced a path up his fang and across his cheek to a point just below his temple. “There are certainly not small sacks just behind and below my eyes that hold it.”

Virgil looked up at him like a child fascinated by something new, but then his expression turned…not frightened, but wary. “Would it kill someone?”

Deceit laughed then, full and humorous. “Yes, Virge.”

There was a momentary panic on the darker side’s face before he remembered who he was talking to and relaxed. “Oh. Then what does it do?”

Deceit chuckled, “Oh it’s totally not ironic.”

Virgil looked up at him, curiosity burning through him. “What?”

Deceit just chuckled again and shook his head playfully. Virgil poked him in the side, whining playfully. “Whhaattt?”

Deceit shook his head and laughed. “Alright, alright, I won't tell you.” He smiled, amusement written clearly on his face. “It most certainly is not a form of truth serum that could force any of you to tell nothing but the truth. Nope, most certainly not.”

Virgil looked at him with wide eyes for a moment then started shaking with laughter. “You – You – “ He threw back his head and laughed. “Oh that is priceless!”

Deceit watched him fondly until the other got himself under control. When Virgil finally stopped laughing he looked up at Deceit with mirth shining in his eyes. “But, I mean, it makes sense, in a way.”

Deceit nodded. “No, it doesn't. Just like yours don't make sense.”

Virgil flinched slightly at the mention of his own fangs, but didn’t shy away from him, curiosity winning out over embarrassment. “H-How?”

Deceit just gave him a soft smile, reaching out to gently card his hand through the other’s hair. “Because. Your fangs are not meant for grabbing hold of something, for latching on to it and either holding it close or ripping it apart. You’re not anxiety, among other things, but your main purpose is not to either reign the others in and protect them or to keep Thomas and the others safe from something by tearing it apart and showing them how dangerous it can be. “He gently lifted Virgil’s chin to look at him. “My job is not to work in the shadows, like a poison, a snake, slow and steady, for if they were to see me outright they certainly would not shun me and everything I am.”

Virgil winced slightly, knowing he had been one to not only push away the lying trait, but to actively make him feel unwelcome. Deceit just smiled gently. “You are not like a wolf, Virgil. Do you know how wolves protect their own?”

Virgil shook his head, so Deceit continued. “They don't bare their teeth in warning. They don't use those teeth to hold others close and keep them in control. They don't use those teeth to latch onto a threat and render it harmless. And that is certainly not your job.”

Virgil stared up at him for a moment before smiling thinly, standing quickly and wrapping the naga-like creature in a hug, catching him by surprise. “Thanks Dee.”

Deceit shook his head and smiled, hugging the other back. “You’re not welcome Virgil.”

Fin.

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@anxiousangelvirgil​

[delusionalpuffball]

[snakemaww]