Explore the Key Concepts with these possible paths through the exhibition. Use the map to locate the animals and places indicated in italics. You may wish to divide your class into small teams. Each team can investigate one question and record its findings to share back in the classroom. Note that animals in captivity do not always behave like ones in the wild, so students won't be able to see all of their characteristic behaviors. This makes the supporting exhibition text and images a great resource.

BEHAVIOR

How Do Squamates Sense Their Environment?
Ask students to observe four animals: Collared Lizard, Eastern Water Dragon, Green Tree Monitor, and Eastern Green Mamba. At each case, ask students to count and record the number of tongue flicks over a one-minute period. Ask students to explain why some squamates flick their tongues more than others. How is this characteristic related to how different squamates sense their environment or to their feeding behavior?

POSSIBLE INFERENCES: These animals belong to two behavioral groups. The members of one group, which includes the Collared Lizard and Eastern Water Dragon, use their vision to detect prey and their tongues to grab food. The other group, which includes the Green Tree Monitor and Eastern Green Mamba, relies on chemoreception. They use their tongues to collect information about the environment and their teeth to capture prey. That's why they generally flick their tongues more often than the vision group.

How Do Squamates Communicate?
Ask students to visit three animals: Cuban Knight Anole, Frilled Lizard, and Veiled Chameleon. How do these squamates communicate with members of their own species and other animals?

POSSIBLE INFERENCES: Cuban Knight Anoles use head bobs, color changes, and the display of colorful throat "fans." Frilled Lizards move their frills up and down and sometimes expand them fully. Veiled Chameleons use changing color patterns along their flanks.

How Do Squamates Protect Themselves?
Ask students to visit five animals: Chuckwalla, Tropical Girdled Lizard, Blue-tongued Skink, Red Spitting Cobra, and Campbell's Milk Snake. How do these squamates avoid being eaten by predators?

POSSIBLE INFERENCES: Chuckwallas hide by wedging themselves in rock crevices. Tropical Girdled Lizards have heavy-duty body armor for protection. Blue-tongued Skinks open their mouths wide, hiss, and stick out their big blue tongues to scare predators away. Red Spitting Cobras may spit venom from several feet away to disable enemies and gain time to escape. Campbell's Milk Snakes are mimics, resembling highly venomous Coral Snakes.

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STRUCTURE & FUNCTION

How Does Body Shape Relate to Locomotion?
Ask students to visit three animals: Green Basilisk Lizard, geckos, and Burmese Python. Then direct them to watch the locomotion video. What connections can students make between body shape and locomotion?

POSSIBLE INFERENCES: Green Basilisk Lizards have strong hind legs and long toes fringed with scales that enable them to sprint across water. Geckos have toe pads with nano-hairs that allow them to cling to and move across many surfaces, even glass. Burmese Pythons use their rib and trunk muscles to move side to side, which is also known as lateral undulation.

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HABITATS, ECOSYSTEMS & ENERGY

How and Where Do Squamates Live?
Ask students to observe two animals: Gabon Viper and Eastern Green Mamba. What can they infer about the relationship between body form and where in the habitat these squamates live? Do their colors offer any clues? What hunting strategies might they employ?

POSSIBLE INFERENCES: Gabon Vipers are ground-dwellers—they have short, massive bodies and sit and wait for prey. Eastern Green Mambas are slender, fast-moving snakes that forage in the treetops, where their vivid green and black colors are good camouflage.

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EVOLUTION

What Is Life Like Without Limbs?
Ask students to visit three animals: Emerald Tree Boa, Amazonian Tree Boa, and Burmese Python. Then direct them to examine the nearby fossil and interactive display titled Life Without Limbs. How have snakes evolved specialized characteristics to live without limbs? How do they move, capture prey, and feed?

POSSIBLE INFERENCES: Snakes have evolved several different types of locomotion that use their hundreds of ribs and trunk muscles. They thrive in treetops, underground burrows, loose sandy deserts, and the open ocean. Snakes use their highly mobile lower jaw to draw food into the mouth. The skull has evolved to be so flexible that snakes can swallow large prey, allowing them to eat bigger meals less often and reducing the amount of energy spent seeking food. Venom-delivery systems, infrared vision, and constriction also help snakes capture and eat their prey.

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