Snake

The Black Mamba snake

Snakes are long, limbless, scaly reptiles which slither upon the ground and sometimes swim in water. Some snakes (about one third of species) venomous. Snakes are abundant in warmer climates, and most of them are quite harmless to man. The fastest moving land snake is the Black Mamba, which can move up to 7 miles per hour.

## Contents

* 1 The origin of snakes: Creationist View
* 2 The origin of snakes: Evolutionist View
* 3 Chinese markets, wild animals, live snakes and the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic
* 4 Some snake species
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## The origin of snakes: Creationist View[edit]

Snakes are a group of animals that have frustrated evolutionists for many years. They are anatomically unlike any other vertebrate and can hybridize regularly, supporting the notion that they are a apobaramin. Snakes can be classified into three families based on hybridization data: Boidae (boas and pythons), Colubridae (colubrid snakes), and Viperidae (Vipers). Since hybrids can be formed within each family, but not between any family, each of the three can be classified as a holobaramin, suggesting that an ancestral pair for each family was present on Noah's Ark. Other research suggest multiple holobaramins in each family suggesting up to 12 snake pairs on the Ark during the Flood.[1]

In the Bible, it was a snake (serpent) that persuaded Eve to defy the law set down by God, and eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, this causing the exile of Adam and Eve from Eden. Snakes have since then been associated with evil and deceit.

## The origin of snakes: Evolutionist View[edit]

Snakes are suborder within the order of Squamata, class of reptiles (Reptilia), subphylum vertebrates, phylum Chordata. They originate from lizard-like reptiles with legs. Their ancestors probably lived under the ground and lost their legs. The most primitive snakes (Boidae and Pythonidae) still have rudimentary back limbs.

## Chinese markets, wild animals, live snakes and the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic[edit]

See also: Dietary practices of atheists and Atheism and the coronavirus pandemic

Some researchers believe the deadly coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China may have originated in snakes like the Chinese cobra pictured above.

Philly Voice reported:

“  |  In the case of this 2019 coronavirus outbreak, reports state that most of the first group of patients hospitalized were workers or customers at a local seafood wholesale market which also sold processed meats and live consumable animals including poultry, donkeys, sheep, pigs, camels, foxes, badgers, bamboo rats, hedgehogs and reptiles. However, since no one has ever reported finding a coronavirus infecting aquatic animals, it is plausible that the coronavirus may have originated from other animals sold in that market.

The hypothesis that the 2019-nCoV jumped from an animal at the market is strongly supported by a new publication in the Journal of Medical Virology. The scientists conducted an analysis and compared the genetic sequences of 2019-nCoV and all other known coronaviruses.

The study of the genetic code of 2019-nCoV reveals that the new virus is most closely related to two bat SARS-like coronavirus samples from China, initially suggesting that, like SARS and MERS, the bat might also be the origin of 2019-nCoV. The authors further found that the viral RNA coding sequence of 2019-nCoV spike protein, which forms the “crown” of the virus particle that recognizes the receptor on a host cell, indicates that the bat virus might have mutated before infecting people.

But when the researchers performed a more detailed bioinformatics analysis of the sequence of 2019-nCoV, it suggests that this coronavirus might come from snakes.

The researchers used an analysis of the protein codes favored by the new coronavirus and compared it to the protein codes from coronaviruses found in different animal hosts, like birds, snakes, marmots, hedgehogs, manis, bats and humans. Surprisingly, they found that the protein codes in the 2019-nCoV are most similar to those used in snakes.

Snakes often hunt for bats in wild. Reports indicate that snakes were sold in the local seafood market in Wuhan, raising the possibility that the 2019-nCoV might have jumped from the host species – bats – to snakes and then to humans at the beginning of this coronavirus outbreak. However, how the virus could adapt to both the cold-blooded and warm-blooded hosts remains a mystery.[2]

|  ”

|
|

## Some snake species[edit]

* Adder
* Asp
* Coral snake
* Corn snake
* Garter Snake
* King Snake
* Python
* Rattlesnake
* Viper

## References[edit]

1. ↑ 1\. Hennigan, T. 2005. An initial investigation into the baraminology of snakes: order--Squamata, suborder Serpentes. Creation Reasearch Society Quarterly Vol. 42.
2. ↑ The new coronavirus outbreak in China may have originated in snakes by HAITAO GUO, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH; GUANGXIANG “GEORGE” LUO, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, AND SHOU-JIANG GAO, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, Philly Voice

## External links[edit]

* World's Smallest Snake as Thin as Spaghetti, Associated Press, Fox News Channel, August 4, 2008