8/11/2005
Interesting Find Night Driving East of Phoenix, AZ
On this evening while night driving east of Phoenix, AZ we found an recently roadkilled, very obviously gravid adult female Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). As the snake appeared to be full term, we dissected her abdomen to see if any of her offspring were still alive and possibly developed enough to survive the "emergency cesarean" and a release. Unfortunately the babies all died with the mother, however the process was still very interesting.
This is the female after we had dissected her and removed the embryos.
Rattlesnakes do not lay eggs but rather give birth to live fully developed young. The offspring are
born looking much like this; a fully developed neonate snake wrapped in a transparent membrane
containing the snake and what is left of the yolk sac.
upon being a born the first thing a live baby does is break free of the protective membrane and detach itself
from the yolk sac. This is what the baby looks like removed from the membrane.
The evening improved when we found this healthy baby Western Diamondback and were able
to move it safely off the road.
