Serpentes (suborder) en

Suborder containing around 2,900 species of reptiles with a greatly elongated body, tapering tail, smooth scaly integument, and in some species, venomous properties. Snakes represent a lizard that, over the course of evolution, has undergone structural reduction, simplification, and loss as well as specialization of characteristics. All snakes lack external limbs, but not all legless reptiles are snakes. All snakes are carnivorous and can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids, limbs, external ears, and vestiges of forelimbs.