A post about flying snakes

"Jake Socha of the University of Chicago has been studying snakes' ability to act like birds for eight years. Today he revealed just how good they are at winging it."

[It's not until almost the end of the article that one reads that this flying ability is exhibited in only a few species of rainforest snakes. Don't panic.]

"'First of all, they flatten their bodies out all the way from their head to tail,' Socha told LiveScience. 'Snakes are part body and part tail, and they have ribs up until the tail. They flatten their ribs and make themselves Frisbee-like in form.'

"'As [the snake] starts falling, it starts sending large S-shaped waves through its body mostly by moving its head from side to side,' Socha explained. 'It also keeps its body parallel to the ground.'

"Since they don’t have wings, snakes control their flight patterns by sort of slithering through the air. By undulating their bodies in an exaggerated S-shaped pattern, they maintain in-flight stability. It’s sort of like how a tightrope walker shifts weight from side to side to keep balance."