How do marrow adders move house?

Listen.

You hear that crunching, cracking noise? That's the marrow adders. They're all around us. Tiny, timid, pretty much harmless. If you break open one of the larger bones left behind by the bonegrass you'll probably find a marrow adder peeking out at you like you've done something wrong.

What? You don't believe me? Well, I'm telling you that crackling noise ain't the campfire.

Marrow adders are tiny, inoffensive, nocturnal snakes. They measure 15cm (at most) from nose to tail when adult, and with heads that barely graze 5mm wide. Their primary food (as you might guess from the name) is bone marrow, which they suck out of the skeletons of creatures unfortunate enough to die in the bonegrass fields, after they've been stripped by numerous other scavengers. They also like to use the bones to hide in, as they're camouflaged and patterned to match bone. More than that, they like to hide inside larger bones, both as protection from the daylight and a good place to hide from any predators.

The question is whether such a small snake would be able to crack, break or corrode it's way into a bone in such a way that it doesn't end up expending more energy than it can hope to get from the marrow inside, and can still get protection from the hard bone itself.

posted about 8 years ago

Joe Bloggs‭

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