What's going on in a whale's throat that allows it to sing?

It's Tuesday, March 5th.

Politics folks call it Super Tuesday, but we say it's Science Friday.

I'm SciFri producer Charles Bergquist.

Coming up, we'll talk about research into the larynx of baleen whales, like humpback and minky whales,

and how researchers, MacGyvered a device using party balloons and exercise

bands to explore its frequencies. But first, why snakes deserve a recognition as evolutionary

superstars. Here's Ira Flato. Ever since those reported events in the Garden of Eden, snakes have

been given a bad rap. Love them or hate them.

Turns out that snakes are some of the most evolutionarily elite creatures on the planet.

And it's not just me who's saying this. A new study in the journal Science finds that snakes evolve faster than other groups of lizards. Yeah, and their ability to

adapt to hyper-specific diets and circumstances make them winners among vertebrates. So what do you

think about snakes now? Well, joining me to share the science of serpents is its senior author

Daniel Roboski, evolutionary biologist and curator

at the Museum of Zoology University of Michigan based in Ann Arbor. Welcome to Science Friday.

Thanks so much for having me, Ira. I want to get right into this. Why are snakes such an evolutionary

powerhouse? You know, that's a really good question. Why are snakes such a

powerhouse? I think that, you know, first, it's not immediately obvious to maybe a lot of folks just how

different snakes are within reptiles. But, you know, you look at a variety of traits and you can see

this really profound shift between other groups of lizards

and snakes.

And that's something that, you know, one of the things that we document in our study that

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