Glossary · 🦎 Anatomy & biology

Heat pits

Also called: Loreal pits · Labial pits

Heat pits are specialised organs (rows of pits along the lips in pythons and boas) that sense infrared "heat", letting a snake detect warm-blooded prey in the dark.

They're essentially built-in thermal vision. It's a normal, fascinating feature of many constrictors — not a defect or injury.

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