SkullThe skull sits at the front of the backbone. Its jaw bones are only loosely joined to the braincase.
Body vertebraeThe vertebrae of the body. Each one carries a pair of ribs.
RibsA pair of long, curved ribs on each body vertebra. They are movable, and the tail has none.
Pelvic spursClaw-like remains of the hind legs, on each side of the vent. Pythons and boas have them; most snakes do not.
Tail vertebraeThe vertebrae of the tail. They carry no ribs.
Skull from the side 11
BraincaseA solid box of bone around the brain. The jaw bones hang loosely from it.
QuadrateThe strut that joins the lower jaw to the skull. It swings freely, which lets the mouth open very wide.
TeethSharp teeth that curve backward. They grip the prey while the jaws draw it in.
DentaryThe front bone of each half of the lower jaw. The two dentaries are joined at the chin only by a stretchy ligament.
MandibleThe lower jaw, which meets the quadrate at the jaw joint. Each half is made of several bones.
MaxillaThe main tooth-bearing bone of the upper jaw. In vipers it is much shorter.
SupratemporalA long bone on the side of the braincase. The quadrate hangs from its rear end.
PterygoidA long bone of the roof of the mouth. It runs back toward the quadrate and carries teeth of its own.
EctopterygoidA short bone that links the maxilla to the pterygoid. Older books call it the transverse bone.
PrefrontalIt sits between frontal bone and maxilla. The eye socket lies behind it.
PremaxillaA small single bone at the tip of the snout.
How this list was compiled: Every name was checked on 2026-10-01 in at least two sources, for facts only and with nothing copied: (1) G. A. Boulenger, The Snakes of Europe, 1913 (public domain), the chapter on the skeleton, https://archive.org/details/snakesofeurope00boul, with the Wikipedia article Snake skeleton, which repeats its wording and is counted with it; (2) H. Gadow, Amphibia and Reptiles, 1901 (public domain), the chapter on snakes, https://archive.org/details/amphibiareptiles00gado; (3) a university library of CT scans, the page on the skull of a python, http://digimorph.org/specimens/Python_molurus/; (4) Wikipedia, Snake, the section on the skeleton. That the tail vertebrae carry no ribs is in (1) and (4); (2) differs and says all the vertebrae except the atlas carry ribs. A bone only one of them names is not a part of this page. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work
How it works
To label the snake skeleton, write a name on the line for each number. Numbers 1 to 5 are on a python's whole skeleton, seen from above. Numbers 6 to 16 are on its skull, seen from the left side.
On the whole skeleton, 2 ends on the backbone and 3 on the ribs; 5 ends on the short run with no ribs, and 4 on a small claw where that run begins. On the skull, 8 ends on a tooth of the upper jaw and 11 on the bar that carries it. 9 ends on the toothed front half of the lower jaw; 10, on the bare rear half, means the whole jaw. 13 and 14 are the two slender bones under the large box: 14 is the short one in front.
When marking, trunk vertebrae is right on line 2, caudal vertebrae on line 5, lower jaw on line 10 and squamosal on line 12.
The bone behind the eye socket is drawn, but has no number.
Questions and answers
Can snakes hear?
Yes, though they have no outer ears. A snake has inner ears, and it picks up vibrations along a path of bones: the lower jaw, number 10, the quadrate, number 7, and a bone called the stapes.
Do pythons have fangs?
No. A python's teeth are all alike in shape, with no special ones among them. Fangs are special teeth on the maxilla, number 11, with which venomous snakes deliver their venom.
Which bones of a snake have teeth?
In most snakes, the dentary below and the maxilla above, numbers 9 and 11, and two bones of the mouth's roof: the pterygoid, number 13, and the palatine. Those two carry an inner row, which moves separately and helps walk the jaws over prey.