Rhiannon had been swiftly taking notes as people kept offering answers to the professor's questions. She felt bad that she hadn't offered up any answers of her own since the first time she had raised her hand, but to be honest, she didn't know that much about snakes. It made sense to her that the Slytherins would; the snake was their symbol. But she hadn't really been that interested in snakes in school. Until now.

Cora sat at the back, alone, mouth open, eyes wide. It was pretty clear that she was sliiiightly confused by all this gobbledegook. Slowly, she closed her mouth, and frowned. How did they hear?

"Er...through their ears?" She asked hopefully. No! Wait! She remembered reading something about this..."Don't they hear through vibrations, Professor?" She asked, chewing the inside of her cheek in thought. Okay, okay, so her answer wasn't quite as scientific as anyone elses. But hey! At least she'd triiiied!

Amelia looked over at Josh, who finally took notice of her and said it was okay. Boy was he out of it today! She looked over and nodded quickly at him, to say that she understood him but didn't want to actually speak and risk points.

She listened to other students' responses about how snakes hear, and just nodded softly to show that she agreed with them. It was silly for her to speak and repeat the same thing over again.

Excelsior had nothing else to add. He figured the other students had already covered the question very well. He just sat and took notes in his notebook.

Kai quickley took down notes while keeping track of the task at hand. She looked up as the professor spoke, she loved this class it was so exciting. Then upon hearing the question she shot her hand up in the air and spoke "They not only use smell to track prey, but they taste odours in the air with their tongues as well. Also Snakes have poor eyesight,so they have heat censors that can pick up vibrations."

Adding to Kai's answer I say,
"They also can mistake a sunbathing human as prey due to the hieghtened heat levels of the human. This is why Argentinian wizards must be careful if they wish to sun bathe, because there may be a Boa nearby." I smile at my answer, looking at Kai who was right beside me.

Having owned his own pet snakes before he already new some of this stuff. Razing his hand lazily he said "They hear through vibrations...it resonates through their skin and they "hear" them with their inner ear. That's how they can always tell when something is near..they can feel you walking" he announced.

Loretta sat scribbling some notes, everyone else answered pretty well, to bad she didn't know that much about snakes.....

Jenny walked into the lesson, sitting right at the front."Good day "
"I'm Jenny Garden...first year..."

"Yes yes" Fabian clasped his hands again with a smile, "everyone answered correctly. Even though they lack actual ears, Snakes do have fully formed inner ear systems with a cochlea, the fluid-filled bone that harvests sound. Cochlea in snakes is connected to their jawbone. They can hear via vibrations produced from ground sound waves. Those sound waves hits their skin then transfers into their muscles then jawbone. When the sound waves reach the ear bone, vibrations travel through the inner ear and the sounds is processed by the brain. They can sense the tiniest of vibrations, hence, small prey... in other ways, snakes can listen with their mouths."

Quote:

Originally Posted by RiddleMeThis

Alex sighed, the teacher had taken no notice of him, but then again most of it was out of a book he borrowed from the library. He diecided to stop cheating and actually earn some points for Slytherin but asking, "Do Snakes do have ears, inner ears that allow them to hear low frequency vibrations?"

"Snakes do not have actual ear lobes, external ear, middle ear, or eardrums. They use the small ear bone to detect vibrations of sound waves conducted through the ground."

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeerCassandraTrelawney

Cassandra then placed her hand down and continued her thought. "The quadrate motion is transferred by intermediate structures to the cochlea, which produces electrical signals on its hair cells that correlate with the airborne sounds, within a range of intensity and frequency determined by the ear system, and are transferred to the brain. The same way a lizard does." She then looked at her professor, "But this wasn't discovered till 35 years ago, before then, no one believed snakes could hear."

"Two points Cassandra for mentioning the Cochlea!"


" In contrary with hearing off the ground, snakes can also pick up vibrations from their surrounding air. The down part is that they only can hear low frequencies, thus, they rely primarily on receipting from ground vibrations."

"Lets move onto their most prominent sense, the sight. Snakes do not have eyelids, however, their eyes are covered with a clear membrane called brille, which makes their eye movement fairly limited. Their sensitivity spectrum range varies from snake to snake. Can anyone add onto that please?"



ooc: Please note, i only take the first correct answer, unless the added info is relevant to the answer and not mentioned first round.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexita

Jenny walked into the lesson, sitting right at the front."Good day "
"I'm Jenny Garden...first year..."

"Five points off Huffpluff for disrupting class while walking late into class. Please take your seat Miss Garden!" Fabian croaked at the young Hufflepuff.

Excelsior raised his hand. "Well, I do know that most snakes focus by moving the lens back and forth in relation to the retina, as opposed to the human eye in which the lens is stretched. Other than that, their vision is pretty unremarkable."

"Some snake species can automatically focus their vision, Two points for Mr. Excelsior!" Fabian crossed his arms across his chest again and waited for more answers.

"Five points off Huffpluff for disrupting class while walking late into class. Please take your seat Miss Garden!" Fabian croaked at the young Hufflepuff.
[/color][/QUOTE]

"Sorry for the late."
Jenny was sad.
"Sorry..."

"Some snake can change their color according to the enviroment around them" Ray answered.

Clifford raised a hand, "Well, uh, I think snakes that are more active in the daytime have like, a more clearer vision." He said unsurely. "But snakes that live underground, or come out at night have smaller eyes and only process light and dark."

How he knew this. He wasn't sure.

"I don't think snakes can see in colours either." He added, scratching his head.

Cassandra beamed as Professor Clarle awarded her points. "A snake’s vision is mainly used for detecting movement of prey. They have difficulty seeing motionless prey or enemies. Objects probably appear as a blur at 40 feet, but at 10 to 15 feet, the objects appear sharper. The vision of many snakes, like the rattlesnake, is better suited for nocturnal searching. Some species, such as racers and garter snakes, have eyes specialized for daytime activity. Snakes appear to stare at their prey because, as you said, they have no eyelids. The eyes of snakes are lidless, but are protected by a tough, transparent covering, or scale, that is shed with the skin. The pupil or the black portion of a rattlesnake’s eye is elliptical, not round as found with the nonvenomous snakes."

Nerds, nerds, nerds. That's what each and every one of those kids in that school were: nerds, and though such a fact would make her brothers bounce around with joy for having loads of people on whom to pick on, it bothered her quite a lot, to say the least.

Sighing, Aithley started to play with her quill as her eyes scanned the classroom in search for something entertaining or interesting. Finally her eyes stopped in the image of the snake, though it had nothing of fascinating in it. Still, she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head as she observed it eat more and more insects without stopping for a second. Somehow she ended up comparing all of those students to the flies who were silly enough to wander around their predator without thinking of the consequences.

In a matter of seconds, the girl found herself bored again. Why was there no action at all in Hogwarts? Why did it have to be so monotonous? It looked like her last hope that maybe during this one class something amusing would happen had vanished in the blink of an eye. After all, where were the chimaeras and the hippogriffs? Nowhere. And why didn't anyone bother to ask this... man, what they were doing to begin with? Surely snakes weren't as important to wizards as dragons. Well, either way, she just wasn't going to sit there and do nothing.

Raising a hand, Aith got ready to speak as politely as possible. 'Er... professor' She unconsciously flinched slightly at the word. 'Shouldn't we be learning about something more instructive? For a wizard, that is'

Lyra raised her hand to add to what Fabian was speaking of snake eyes. "The eyes of snakes are lidless, but are protected by a tough, transparent covering, or scale, that is shed with the skin," she exclaimed, hoping she was somewhat correct on her answer.

Mallory was scribling down every word she happened to catch. Or at least trying to. These people were really smart!

She raised her hand, sinally knowing something that might contribute to the lesson."Some snakes have binocular vision, with both eyes capable of focusing on the same point. Most snakes focus by moving the lens back and forth in relation to the retina, as opposed to the human eye in which the lens is stretched."

Sana raised her hand and asked, "Professor, do they change color?" This was her long time doubt. Looked sideways at Lyra, smiled.

Finn hated snakes. He spent most of the class listening as he absentmindedly doodled different versions of the Hufflepuff house crest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kami12

"Some snake can change their color according to the enviroment around them" Ray answered.

Fabian smiled at Ray, "Yes, some can camouflage to fit their surrounding habitat but that wasn't my particular question. We'll see some of those in our practical!".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gemma_Lou

Clifford raised a hand, "Well, uh, I think snakes that are more active in the daytime have like, a more clearer vision." He said unsurely. "But snakes that live underground, or come out at night have smaller eyes and only process light and dark."

"Thats an important feature to differentiate between different species, Two points for you answer!".

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeerCassandraTrelawney

"They have difficulty seeing motionless prey or enemies. Objects probably appear as a blur at 40 feet, but at 10 to 15 feet, the objects appear sharper. The vision of many snakes, like the rattlesnake, is better suited for nocturnal searching. Some species, such as racers and garter snakes, have eyes specialized for daytime activity. Snakes appear to stare at their prey because, as you said, they have no eyelids. The eyes of snakes are lidless, but are protected by a tough, transparent covering, or scale, that is shed with the skin. The pupil or the black portion of a rattlesnake’s eye is elliptical, not round as found with the nonvenomous snakes."

"Indeed, some species of snakes that do not have the automatic focus ability appear to have distance sight as an obstacle. In addition to their eye shapes variances. Two points for your answer Cassandra!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Padie

Raising a hand, Aith got ready to speak as politely as possible. 'Er... professor' She unconsciously flinched slightly at the word. 'Shouldn't we be learning about something more instructive? For a wizard, that is'

Fabian mused over the young Ravenclaw, "And snakes aren't?" he questioned out wondering if the girl knew how to handle a snake if she came across one.



He glanced at the class as a whol eand continued "Most students in the class have mistaken today's lesson as a partial credit to Slytherin house. It's merely coincidental... Let me guess? Claw's want to learn more about Ravens? And Hufflepuffs want to learn more about Badgers?" his arms automatically crossed against his chest with a menacing smile slowly growing over his lips, "Maybe I should make a special extra credit class for that!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyNerd

Lyra raised her hand to add to what Fabian was speaking of snake eyes. "The eyes of snakes are lidless, but are protected by a tough, transparent covering, or scale, that is shed with the skin," she exclaimed, hoping she was somewhat correct on her answer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin_girl

She raised her hand, sinally knowing something that might contribute to the lesson."Some snakes have binocular vision, with both eyes capable of focusing on the same point. Most snakes focus by moving the lens back and forth in relation to the retina, as opposed to the human eye in which the lens is stretched."

Fabian still held his smiled when he addressed both Lyra and Mallory, "Those are are correct too. They've been mentioned earlier, can you girls think of something more different? .. I'll give you a hint .. it involves magic".

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathi

Sana raised her hand and asked, "Professor, do they change color?" This was her long time doubt. Looked sideways at Lyra, smiled.

"Yes, some snakes that hold magical powers do. But the most prominent feature would be their eye shape. It comes in handy for a wizard to distinguish a poisonous snake from a non poisonous one is from their eyes. This is the easiest method, non-poisonous snakes all have a round pupil whereas all poisonous snakes have a vertical elliptical shaped pupil.

Sana raised her hand for another Question after he finished, "But Professor, I heard that they get the vertical pupils only when they're either hungry or angry..is it true?"

Then she nudged Finn on his ribs playfully.

"Snake are known to have something related with petrification as it has been seen in Medusa and the basilic" Ray replied thinking that snake and magic were related in this sort.

He giggled as he was nudged. He smiled over at Sana. "What?" he mouthed quietly.

Finn raised his hand and offered a thought. "Ma'am is it possible that wizards are able to use the eyes of their serpent familiars as an extra set of eyes, or as projections of their own eyes?"

If he was going to be here, He might as well involve himself.