Sadly, snakes are inactive this time of year in northern Utah. With lower-than-average temperatures dipping below 0° F every night, I've had a lot of time indoors to read and daydream about snakier times and places. You can imagine my envy of my colleagues Susannah French Nick Kiriazis , and Lori Neuman-Lee , who are currently in the Galápagos Islands studying Marine Iguanas. Nick, a student teacher at South Cache Middle School in Hyrum, Utah, is blogging about their research experiences at his blog, The Learning Scientist , which you should check out. Before they left, I instructed them that they were not to pass up an opportunity to observe the endemic racers of the Galápagos, the only snakes to inhabit the famous archipelago (other than one sea snake species, found offshore).

Galapagos Snake from Bartholome Island

Galápagos (and

Many groups of organisms have colonized the volcanic

Galápagos from South America since the islands rose from beneath the sea some 8 million years ago. In that time, many of the plants and animals have diversified and speciated, leaving behind a pattern of relationships so telling that the idea of evolution by natural selection was formulated based on observations Charles Darwin made of the islands' fauna (for a recap, follow the link above to see a video to which my friend Rosemary Mosco contributed artwork).

Galapagos Snake eating a lava lizard (Microlophus sp.)