What Animal Is Misidentified As A Basilisk

By all accounts, the Basilisk is identified as a snake. It'southward Slytherin'due south monster, and Slytherin's House symbol is a snake. Harry is able to speak to it in Parseltongue, which is the language of snakes. Nevertheless, the design of the Basilisk in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets picture show actually resembles a legless lizard much more than a snake. And aye, to all those wondering, legless lizards are real animals. They very much resemble snakes except for a handful of primal differences, all of which the Basilisk shows.

one. Visible Eyelids

Information technology's a simple fact that snakes don't take eyelids, always. If you look at the eyes of snakes, they seem virtually bulging, since they're not surrounded by the folds of skin that help make upward the eyelid. However, looking at the Basilisk, information technology has a clearly visible eyelid, allowing it to shut and open its eyes at will, much like a lizard. Personally, I think a basilisk that can't shut its eyes would really exist more terrifying, as its deadly gaze couldn't be turned off aside from completely blinding it.

2. Solid One-Piece Lower Jaw

It can often seem similar snakes are dislocating their jaw as they take hold of and swallow their casualty, but that'due south not what happens. Snakes actually have a jaw made up of two basic called mandibles. These mandibles, dissimilar in humans, are not fused together. Instead, the two basic tin move independently of each other, allowing the snake to consume such proportionally large prey. Notwithstanding, legless lizards have a solid i-piece lower jaw that is less maneuverable, and thus they mostly go after smaller casualty. Maybe that's why the Basilisk goes afterwards humans in Harry Potter. It literally can't eat larger casualty.

3. Scales

If you've ever had the take a chance to pet a serpent, you'll know that they take smooth scales that lie flat against their bodies. To contrast, lizards take more beaded and pebbled pare. Looking at the Basilisk's scales, it'south clear that its skin is rough and bumpy, not smooth. While there are some smoother scales on its underbelly, that's not uncommon for lizards, either.

4. Earholes

While Parseltongue is a really cool concept, in theory, it actually could never work. Snakes are deaf. They employ vibrations to make up for their lack of hearing, assuasive them to sense incoming creatures. I would exist willing to give a pass to Parseltongue, equally information technology is a magical language. Withal, the Basilisk in the movie has visible earholes, something no snake has. Legless lizards do have earholes, though.

5. Head Shape

When examining the Basilisk'southward head, two things stood out to me. I was its nostrils, every bit ophidian nostrils tend to be less obtrusive, and they're usually on each side of the head. However, the nostrils on the Basilisk are much more than forward-facing, and the full general shape of its snout is more lizard-similar. The 2d matter I noticed was its horns. As a full general rule, near snakes don't have horns, and the species that do have them poking out straight above the eyes, not on the back of the head.

6. Lack of Forked Tongue

Commencement of all, I will admit that we barely see the Basilisk's tongue in the picture. That in and of itself is unusual since snakes use their tongues to odour the air and find prey, then the Basilisk definitely would have washed that if it were a snake – particularly afterward information technology went bullheaded and was relying on other senses. However, examining the pictures available of its open up mouth, it looks similar information technology doesn't have a forked tongue. Snakes always have forked tongues; lizards do non.

7. Teeth

I won't deny it: The Basilisk's teeth looked actually cool and scary in the movie. It definitely made for a dramatic image when Harry had that giant fang sticking out of his arm. Nevertheless, no snake really has teeth similar that. Snake teeth tend to be much thinner and more than needle-similar. Furthermore, the Basilisk has a full oral cavity of teeth, top and bottom row. Snakes actually don't have that many teeth. Some don't even have any teeth on the lesser row, and most of the teeth aside from the main 2 fangs aren't that prominent. As such, while the Basilisk is a terrifying reptilian monster, information technology's not actually a snake. Or at the very least, the moving-picture show version isn't.

Source: https://www.mugglenet.com/2019/08/why-the-basilisk-is-actually-a-legless-lizard/

Posted by: davisvien1961.blogspot.com

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