The Penis Snake (Atretochoana eiselti)

in #steemstem7 years ago

Hello everyone, am here to introduce a very strange but fascinating creature i stumbled upon while doing some research online. This creature has been dubbed many names by the media because of its resemblance to you know what. It's been called names from the manconda to the penis snake and even floppy snake.

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This creature is neither a penis nor a snake. It's actually a snake-like amphibian. The creature who goes by the bionomial name Atretochoana eiselti is the largest tetrapod to lack lungs. It is classified as a caecillian(which are limbless amphibians with snake like bodies. An example is the earthworm). The atretochoana is the largest known Cecilian, attaining a length of 81cm (32 inches).It is known to be an aquatic creature.

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It has very unique features that differentiates it from animals it is closely related to. It's skull is broad which gives it a flat head, it has no nostrils and an enlarged mouth.It also has no eyes and navigates primarily through smell.Most Cecilians have properly developed lungs but the atretochoana doesn't.

The atretochoana was first discovered in 1945, known to have originated from South America. There wasnt really a lot of known information about it because it is rare. A holotype was made and placed in a museum after it was described by Edward Taylor in 1968. The description was brief and concentrated mainly on it's external morphology. In 1990, it was rexamined by a zoologist Dr Ronald A Nassbaum from Michigan University. This was when it was discovered that the large atretochoana had no lungs, making it the largest species of tetrapods known to science to lack lungs. A major description was then made of the creature in 1995.A second specimen was finally recorded in 1998 around a river in Brazil.

In 2012, A family of 6 atretochoana were discovered by engineers building a dam in the Amazon. It was discovered while draining a portion of the Madeira river. Of the 6 seen,one died sadly.Three were released back into the wild and 2 were kept for further research.
Till date, it's population still isn't known because it has only been cited 3 times in history. It is still classified as data deficient because there's still a lot of unknown information about it.No one even knows how it breathes as it has no nostrils or lungs; although it is suspected that it breathes through it's skin but this hasn't been ascertained yet.

Atretochoana like most amphibians mainly feed on small fish, worms and other aquatic invertebrates. It's a bit distressing that the rare animal was found in an area that is prone to thorough ecological disturbance; due to the dams being built in the amazon. A total of 20 dams are scheduled to be built before the year 2020.A lot of biologists feel that the disturbance could lead to the loss of a lot of vital and rare creatures including the atretochoana.

I hope you have found the atretochoana as fascinating as I did.

Thank you for reading.


Until my next post,

Stay healthy.

@melanie00


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Wtf...dick snake? ...Damn.

Hello @ememovic

I know right! Lol
Well technically, it's not really a snake. More like a gaint earth worm with a striking resemblance to you know what.
It just sounds better and funnier calling it a snake. Lol.
Thanks for reading!

@melanie00

What!!! oh my goodness! it really looks like both a penis and a snake.

Thank you so much for your research... you just made me learn something new!

I love your diction, especially the way it is used in the first paragraph. Good job dear

Hello @chemmy,

Thank you so much for your kind words and for reading.
Cheers and Steem on!

@melanie00

Thumbnail looks like nsfw worthy. Great article by the way.

Oh, should it be nsfw since it's not human and just an animal?
Please tell me cos i don't really know.

I really do not have that information. Just that some may think it requires it. Ask around. Keep steeming.

Exactly, was thinking the same thing....its a great post tho

Upon seeing this, all we could do was giggle. This is a really good one though, quite impressive. Here is our tiny upvote for you.

Thank you for reading!

Great post but snakes in general are scary. This is the first time am seeing something like that. Thanks for the share