Sidewinding

The crosswinds is a special mode of locomotion, which is observed especially among the snakes. Here they move sideways over the sand by always roll at two points with the entire body. Here, the head is placed and rolled, follow him the whole body, while the head already touches down in a new place. In this type of locomotion, the snake touches only a small part of the body surface the ground. It created species-specific, J-shaped tracks in the sand, form their longitudinal axes to the direction of an acute angle.

You can meet the crosswinds living as the main form of locomotion in only a few species in deserts, where it is possible to effectively move across the fine-grained sand. This is especially the Sidewinder Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes ) in North America, the Peringuey's Adder ( Bitis peringueyi ) in the West African Namib and the Horn of Africa vipers ( cerastes ) in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

• Locomotion
• Herpetology