THE mysterious moustache of an aquatic snake may help it “see” in murky waters by detecting subtle currents generated by its prey.
and colleagues at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, used a hair to deflect the upper-lip tentacles of tentacled snakes (Erpeton tentaculatum), and recorded the resulting nerve activity. The tentacles proved to be exquisitely sensitive to even the tiniest deflection.
Mapping the path of the tentacle nerves showed that they feed into an area of the brain that processes sensory signals, close to where it responds strongly to visual signals. “This suggests that [the snakes] are putting…
