And the latest in the line of bad ass snakes is.....

[Darth Mortis]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06 ... index.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Researchers scouring swamps in the heart of Borneo island have discovered a venomous species of snake that can change its skin color, the conservation group WWF announced Tuesday.

The ability to change skin color is known in some reptiles, such as the chameleon, but scientists have seen it rarely with snakes and have not yet understood this phenomenon, the group said in a statement.

"I put the reddish-brown snake in a dark bucket," said Mark Auliya, a reptile expert and a consultant for the group. "When I retrieved it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white."

Reptiles typically change color to camouflage themselves from predators.

The 1.6-foot-long snake was discovered last year in wetlands and swamp forests around the Kapuas River in the Betung Kerihun National Park in the Indonesian part of Borneo island.

"The discovery of the 'chameleon' snake exposes one of nature's best-kept secrets. Its ability to change color has kept it hidden from science until now," said Bambang Supriyanto, a WWF specialist on Borneo.

Holy shit, this thing is pretty awesome. [/quote]

[Pablo Sanchez]

This is more science than news.

[Pick]

"I put the reddish-brown snake in a dark bucket," said Mark Auliya, a reptile expert and a consultant for the group. "When I retrieved it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white."

Shitty camoflauge .

Seriously, though, this is very cool!

[King Kong]

Very cool.

The snake hasn't been observed to change it's skin color to any color except white, which suggests to me that this adaptation is primarily used for temperature regulation, not camouflage. When the snake is hot, it changes its color to white to reflect sunlight and cool down. This ability would allow the snake to remain active for longer periods of time, making it a more effective predator. I suppose this ability could also serve as a useful threat display. Several other species of snakes are known to do this, but not nearly as fast. There must be some interesting evolutionary pressures in Borneo to produce this adaptation.

[Setesh]

Should it scare me that I created a fictional snake species that did this in a white wolf game some time ago? (A nagah offshoot species) I printed the article and showed it to one of the players, she 'wow'ed, asked if I faked it and wow'ed again.

[SylasGaunt]

Shitty camoflauge .

Seriously, though, this is very cool!

Well aside from temperature control a lot of animals do the bright color thing as basically a warning to predators that they're nasty and venemous/poisonous.