My 4-year old kept an eye on this guy while I went into the house for my camera. It’s flicking its tongue to get a smell of the surroundings; it’s tongue is forked to enable it to smell in stereo. It is Thamnophis sirtalis, the common garter snake, one of only a handful of species of reptile that give live birth.
What!? I thought live birth (and lactation) was the very definition of being a mammal. But, according to Wikipedia, the current definition of mammals is “sweat glands, including sweat glands modified for milk production, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.”
What a tangled web we weave when we try to classify life on earth!
