tags: snake, reptiles, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Unknown (to me) species of snake
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Does anyone have any idea as to what is that weird appendage is that is hanging off the snake's tail?
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
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It is giving birth.
Some type of rattlesnake I'ld guess.
Perhaps an adult cottonmouth that hasn't lost its juvenile colouration?
Maybe that is the tail? I can imagine there's a portion of the snake that's obscured by the part of the body we can see, connecting it to the tail in a more continuous way.
I thought that the "weird appendage" was the end of the snake's tail. The body of the snake disappears behind the horizontal black bar, coils around for a while out of sight, and then re-emerges just before the end of the tail.
If that is in fact intended to be the tail, the snake isn't a rattler.
ACW;
You may be correct, I'm having a hard time finding any snake with that particular colouration/pattern at all.
Though this one http://www.scserp.com/images/RhinocerosViperUganda001.JPG has an intreging range of colours.
The reason I plumped for birth is the thin bit seems to be coming from roughly the right location http://www.thematzats.com/snakes/images/livebirth.jpg though your idea makes sense
It's a handsome snake, but if my mother ever walks down that subway platform and sees it, there will be a woman-shaped hole in the far wall. Seriously. Phobias are hard to deal with. I haven't seen all of this great series yet-- is there a huge spider too?
yes, there is a large spider on the walls. it will appear here .. soon. very soon.
i am phobic of spiders, so i can relate to the snake phobia, although i am fine around snakes. but i am not so bad around a spider mosaic, but those real spiders dangling above my head while i shower make me terribly nervous.
and the tail might be the result of some coiling, but it looks so awkward to my eye that i cannot really imagine it as that at all. and the colors are wacky, too. maybe the artist was using magic mushrooms while designing that particular snake?
I think the artist might have taken some license, but there is a snake that has a similar hanging posture and similar shaped head. The color seems a little odd, but the juveniles start as yellow/orange/red and gradually lose this and take their adult color.
I am making an educated guess and saying this is an amazon tree boa. Here are some pictures:
http://www.boakingdom.com/treeboa.html