Reticulated Python Skeleton
Queensland Museum exhibits can be seen throughout the State. This skeletal display prepared by Queensland Museum for Australia Zoo, shows a Reticulated Python attacking a pig.
Reticulated Python Python reticulatus (Schneider, 1801)
The Reticulated Python is the longest snake in the world. Widespread and common in South-east Asia, it is not found in Australia except in zoo collections. The largest specimen known measured 10.1m.
Pythons, like most snakes, can prey on animals that look too big to swallow whole. To a large Reticulated Python, a pig is 'chicken-feed'!
Pythons are non-venomous. They bite and hold their prey with sharp, curved teeth, then whip body coils around the animal to constrict and suffocate it. This collapses the prey's chest, deflates its lungs and compresses its heart.
Large animals are easily swallowed because the bones of a python's skull are loosely articulated and its skin, neck and gut muscles stretch easily.
The Exhibit
These skeletons were prepared for permanent display at Australia Zoo. The python is a 5.82 m specimen that died at the zoo in 1995, aged about 20 years.
How were these skeletons prepared for display?
Both python and pig were cleaned by meat-eating insects (dermestids) and were
bleached and reassembled by
Patrick Couper
of the Queensland Museum's
Herpetology Section
The skeletons had to be wired and glued together, piece by piece. The job took 6 weeks.
Vital Statistics
Vertebrae are the main bones found in a spinal column. Humans usually have 33 vertebrae. This pig has 40. Snakes have hundreds. They interlock with strong ball and socket joints. Pairs of contact points between adjacent vertebrae prevent twisting along the spinal column.
Python skeleton:
Australia Zoo and the Queensland Museum
Australia Zoo was founded in 1970 by Bob and Lyn Irwin, the parents of Steve Irwin - the Crocodile Hunter. The zoo is now owned by Steve's wife Terri.
Australia Zoo and the Vertebrate Section of the Queensland Museum have had a long and mutually beneficial association. This is based on shared passion and concern for wildlife and its conservation. The collaboration shares a goal - to enhance awareness, appreciation and protection of wildlife.