title: Morrissey

text: A 2017 biopic of Morrissey's early years, titled "England Is Mine", was written and directed by Mark Gill and stars Jack Lowden. The film, which co-stars Jessica Brown Findlay, premiered at the closing gala of the Edinburgh Film Festival on 2 July 2017 and went into wide release in the UK and US in August 2017.


title: Morrissey

text: In an April 2021 episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Panic on the Streets of Springfield", Morrissey inspired the parody character of Quilloughby. Voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Quilloughby is portrayed as a romantic figment of Lisa Simpson's imagination. She has her dream shattered when she finds out that he has aged into a grey, meat-eating overweight frontman with anti-immigrant views. The episode was criticised by Morrissey as based on "complete ignorance".


title: Minnie Driver

text: Amelia Fiona Jessica "Minnie" Driver (born 31 January 1970) is an English actress. She rose to prominence with her break-out role in 1995's "Circle of Friends". She went on to star in a wide range of films including the cult classic "Grosse Pointe Blank", Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting" for which she was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award, the musical "The Phantom of the Opera", "Owning Mahowny", and providing the voice of Lady Eboshi in Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke".


title: Minnie Driver

text: In television, Driver starred with Eddie Izzard in "The Riches" for which she was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She has starred in the ABC sitcom "Speechless", the NBC sitcom "About a Boy", and in a recurring role in the NBC series "Will & Grace". She has also starred in several miniseries in the UK including "The Deep" for BBC One.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Predating her work as an actress, Driver started as a singer and has released three full solo albums over the span of her career. She has also lent her voice to a variety of animated series and films including "SuperMansion" and "Tarzan" as well as video games including "".


title: Minnie Driver

text: Amelia Fiona Jessica Driver was born in London and raised in Barbados until she was six. The nickname Minnie was given to her by her older sister Kate in childhood.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Her mother, Gaynor Churchward () (1937–2021), was a fabric designer and former couture model. Her father, Charles Ronald Driver (1921–2009), was born in Swansea, Wales, and was of English and Scottish descent. He earned the Distinguished Flying Medal for his role in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and was a director of London United Investments.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Her parents never married as her father was married to another woman throughout his relationship with Minnie's mother. Her parents broke off their relationship when Minnie was six years old. She was sent to Bedales School in Hampshire as a boarder soon after. She later attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and Collingham College, an independent college in Kensington, Central London. Minnie's older sister Kate is a film producer and manager. She also has one older half-sister, Susan Driver, from her father's prior marriage, and two younger half-brothers: Charlie Driver, a football agent, from Ronald's subsequent marriage, and Ed Churchward from her mother's subsequent one.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver's television debut was in a 1991 TV advertisement for Right Guard deodorant. Driver also made her stage debut in 1991, supplementing her income by performing as a jazz vocalist and guitarist. In 1993 she featured in an episode of "Maigret", alongside Michael Gambon and Michael Sheen. She appeared in "The Day Today", on British television, with comedian Steve Coogan and for satirist Armando Iannucci, and had small parts in "Casualty", "The House of Eliott", "Lovejoy" and "Peak Practice".


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver gained broader public attention when she played the lead role in "Circle of Friends" in 1995, opposite Chris O'Donnell. She followed this with a minor role in "GoldenEye" (1995), a supporting role in "Sleepers" (1996), a leading role in "Big Night" (1996), and as a co-star in "Grosse Pointe Blank" (1997), opposite John Cusack.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver played opposite Matt Damon as Skylar in the drama "Good Will Hunting" (1997), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Driver was also considered to play Rose DeWitt Butaker in the 1997 film "Titanic", but director James Cameron felt she was too old so Kate Winslet was cast instead.


title: Minnie Driver

text: In 1998, Driver starred in Sandra Goldbacher's film "The Governess". That year, she co-starred opposite Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman in the action thriller "Hard Rain". Driver has also worked on several animated features, voicing Jane in Disney's 1999 version of "Tarzan" and Lady Eboshi in the 1999 English-dubbed release of the Japanese film "Princess Mononoke". In 2003 and 2004, she had a recurring role on "Will & Grace" as Lorraine Finster, the nemesis of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and daughter of Karen's lover, Lyle Finster (John Cleese).


title: Minnie Driver

text: In March 2007, Driver made her return to television in the FX Network show "The Riches". She was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2007 and 2008, respectively. She was scheduled to appear in "The Simpsons Movie", although her appearance was cut from the final version. Driver appeared in the January 2010 episode of "Modern Family" entitled "Moon Landing". She also starred in the television series "The Deep" and appeared in "Conviction", in the comedy drama "Barney's Version", winning a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver landed the lead role in the ABC sitcom "Speechless", playing the mother of three children, one of whom has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. The series debuted in the 2016–17 TV season. It was cancelled in May 2019 after three seasons.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver began making music at boarding school. She collaborated on Bomb the Bass's album "Clear", in 1994, as part of the outfit River. She was part of the Milo Roth Band, which received a recording contract when she was 19. In 2001 she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at the SXSW music festival. The title song of "Everything I've Got in My Pocket", her first album, reached No. 34 in the U.K., and the song "Invisible Girl" peaked at No. 68. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album. In 2004, Driver was the supporting act for the Finn Brothers on the U.K. portion of their world tour.


title: Minnie Driver

text: In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher's film "The Phantom of the Opera", based on the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Driver sang "Learn to be Lonely", an original song written for the film by Lloyd Webber. However, because of her lack of opera experience, all her songs as Carlotta were dubbed by opera singer Margaret Preece. Driver released her second album, "Seastories", in July 2007, featuring guest appearances by Ryan Adams, the Cardinals and Liz Phair. Driver released a third album in October 2014 called "Ask Me to Dance" that includes songs by Elliott Smith, Neil Young and The Killers.


title: Minnie Driver

text: In 2021, Driver started a podcast, "Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver", in which she asks guests a series of seven questions, inspired by the Proust Questionnaire. Guests have included Chelsea Clinton, Nick Jonas and Cindy Crawford.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver has been in a relationship with Addison O'Dea since 2019. She was briefly engaged to Josh Brolin in 2001. She has a son, Henry (born 5 September 2008), from a brief relationship with television writer and producer Timothy J. Lea.


title: Minnie Driver

text: Driver was a long-time ambassador for and supporter of Oxfam until withdrawing her support in 2018 over the sexual abuse scandal in the organisation.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award.


title: Louis Theroux

text: After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, Theroux moved to the United States and worked as a journalist for "Metro Silicon Valley" and "Spy". He moved into television as the presenter of offbeat segments on Michael Moore's "TV Nation" series and later began to host his own documentaries for the BBC, including "Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends," "When Louis Met...", and several BBC Two specials.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Louis Sebastian Theroux was born in Singapore on 20 May 1970, the son of English mother Anne (née Castle) and American father Paul Theroux, a noted travel writer and novelist. His paternal grandmother, Anne Dittami, was an Italian-American grammar school teacher, while his paternal grandfather, Albert Eugène Theroux, was a French-Canadian salesman for the American Leather Oak company. Theroux holds dual British and American citizenship. He is the nephew of novelist Alexander Theroux and writer Peter Theroux. His older brother, Marcel, is a writer and television presenter. His cousin, Justin, is an actor and screenwriter.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux moved with his family to England when he was one year old, and was raised in the Catford area of south London. He went from primary school to Tower House School in East Sheen in 1979 or 1980 and then to Westminster School, a public school within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. There, he befriended comedians Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, and future Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, with whom he travelled to America. He also performed in a number of school theatre productions including "Bugsy Malone" as Looney Bergonzi, "Ritual for Dolls" as the Army Officer, and "The Splendour Falls" as the Minstrel. He read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford (1988–1991), graduating with first-class honours.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux's first employment as a journalist was in the United States with "Metro Silicon Valley", an alternative free weekly newspaper in San Jose, California. In 1992, he was hired as a writer for "Spy." He also worked as a correspondent on Michael Moore's "TV Nation" series, for which he provided segments on offbeat cultural subjects, including selling Avon to women in the Amazon Rainforest, the Jerusalem syndrome, and attempts by the Ku Klux Klan to rebrand itself as a civil rights group for white people.


title: Louis Theroux

text: When "TV Nation" ended, Theroux was signed to a development deal by the BBC, through which he developed "Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends". He has written for a number of publications, including "Hip Hop Connection" and "The Idler".


title: Louis Theroux

text: In "Weird Weekends" (1998–2000), Theroux followed marginal (mostly American) subcultures such as survivalists, black nationalists, white supremacists, and porn stars, often by living among or close to the people who were involved in them. His documentary method often subtly exposed the contradictions or farcical elements of some seriously held beliefs. He described the aim of the series as:


title: Louis Theroux

text: In the series "When Louis Met..." (2000–02), Theroux accompanied a different British celebrity in each programme in their daily lives, interviewing them as they go. His episode about British entertainer Jimmy Savile, "When Louis Met Jimmy", was voted one of the top documentaries of all time in a 2005 survey by Britain's Channel 4. Some years after the episode was filmed, the NSPCC described Savile as one of the most prolific sex offenders in Great Britain.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In an interview in 2015, Theroux expressed his intention to produce a follow-up documentary about Savile for the BBC to explore how the late entertainer had continued his abuse for so long, to meet people he knew closely, and examine his own reflections on his inability to dig more deeply into the first case. This follow-up documentary, with the title "Savile", aired on BBC Two on Sunday, 2 October 2016, and lasted 1 hour, 15 minutes.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In "When Louis Met the Hamiltons", the former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine were arrested during the course of filming, due to false allegations of indecent assault.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In "When Louis Met Max Clifford", Max Clifford tried to set up Theroux, but he was caught lying as the crew recorded his live microphone during the conversations.


title: Louis Theroux

text: After this series concluded, a retrospective called "Life with Louis" was released. Theroux made a documentary called "Louis, Martin & Michael" about his quest to get an interview with Michael Jackson to which he lost out to Martin Bashir who went on to make the documentary Living With Michael Jackson. Selected episodes of "When Louis Met..." were included as bonus content on a Best-Of collection of "Weird Weekends".


title: Louis Theroux

text: In these special programmes, beginning in 2003, Theroux returned to American themes, working at feature-length and in a more natural way. In March 2006, he signed a new deal with the BBC to make 10 films over the course of three years. Subjects for the specials include criminal gangs in Lagos, Neo-Nazis in America, ultra-Zionists in Israel. He also visits child psychiatry, and the prison systems in California and Florida. A 2007 special, "The Most Hated Family in America", received strong critical praise from the international media.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In October 2016, Theroux premiered a feature-length documentary, "My Scientology Movie". Produced by Simon Chinn—a school friend of Theroux's—and directed by John Dower, the film covers Theroux attempting to gain access to the secretive Church of Scientology. It premiered at the London Film Festival in 2015 and was released in cinemas in the UK on 7 October 2016.


title: Louis Theroux

text: "Forbidden America" is a three-part series focusing on social media use in the United States among several groups, including the alt-right, rappers and pornographic film actors. On the "Extreme and Online" Louis meets the latest incarnation of the American far right: a political movement born out of the internet and increasingly making its presence felt on the political stage. Theroux interviews Nick Fuentes and Baked Alaska.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In 2022, the BBC announced a series of interviews conducted by Theroux under the title "Louis Theroux Interviews", in which he meets and talks to celebrities from stage, screen and music about their successful careers and their personal lives. The first series started airing weekly on BBC Two on 25 October 2022 and features interviews from rapper Stormzy, actress Dame Judi Dench, musician YUNGBLUD, adventurer Bear Grylls, comedian Katherine Ryan and singer Rita Ora. A second series of "Louis Theroux Interviews" was announced by the BBC afterwards.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux published his first book, "", in Britain in 2005. In it, he recounts his return to the United States to learn about the lives of some of the people he had featured in his television programmes.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux released a memoir, "Gotta Get Theroux This", in September 2019. He released his third book, "Theroux the Keyhole", a diary recorded during the UK COVID-19 lockdowns, in November 2021.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In April 2020, during a COVID-19 lockdown, Theroux started the BBC Radio 4 podcast "Grounded with Louis Theroux" from his home, in which he interviews well-known people he finds particularly fascinating and to whom he would not necessarily have had a chance to speak before the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux makes a few appearances on "The Adam and Joe Show" DVD and has been a guest many times on Adam & Joe's radio shows, as well as on "The Adam Buxton Podcast".


title: Louis Theroux

text: As part of the "Weird Weekends" episode "Porn", Theroux agreed to film a cameo in the 1997 gay pornography film "Take a Peak". He did not perform sexual acts in the film, but made a brief appearance as a park ranger in search of a criminal. In the "Weird Weekends" episode "Infomercials", he featured as a live salesman for an at-home paper shredder for the Home Shopping Network.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In December 2015, Theroux captained the team representing Magdalen College, Oxford on BBC Four's "Christmas University Challenge". In their first-round match, the team beat the University of Exeter's team by 220 to 130 and went on to win the tournament.


title: Louis Theroux

text: In April 2022, Theroux went viral after a clip of him on the YouTube show "Chicken Shop Date"in which he performed a short rap he had originally written and performed in the "Weird Weekends" episode ""Gangsta Rap"" 22 years earlierwas autotuned by a TikTok user and turned into a reusable audio track with backing music. The trend saw users lip-syncing to the sound and performing an accompanying dance. It has led to more footage of Theroux's rapping ability being unearthed, leading the BBC to publish an article listing seven times he "proved he was a massive hip hop head". In May, Theroux released "Jiggle Jiggle", a full version of the rap which he created alongside Manchester DJ duo Duke & Jones.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux's first marriage was to Susanna Kleeman from 1994 until they divorced in 2001; he later told Sathnam Sanghera of the "Financial Times", "What happened was that my girlfriend was living with me in New York. She was having trouble finding work ... legally. So we got married, to make it easier for her. We never really considered ourselves married in the full sense – there were no wedding photos or anything like that. It was really a marriage of convenience."


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux married his long-time girlfriend, Nancy Strang, on 13 July 2012. They have three sons together. In a 2012 masterclass, he spoke of the challenges of combining family life with the need to go away to work on projects. They lived in the Harlesden area of London until temporarily moving to Los Angeles in early 2013, allowing him more time to focus on his "LA Stories" series. In 2017, they relocated to Los Angeles. Theroux and his family spent Covid-19 lockdowns in North-West London where they are currently based.


title: Louis Theroux

text: Theroux is an atheist. He dabbled with weed at 17 and later said that, while he acknowledges that cannabis is an intoxicant and can trigger certain mental health issues, he supports its legalisation. He has also revealed that he has a fear of flying


title: Louis Theroux

text: In 2018, Theroux's Twitter account was hacked by cybersecurity firm Insinia as part of their attempt to highlight a longstanding security flaw in Twitter's system.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues guitar style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. They are popular for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the matching appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who wore sunglasses, hats and long beards.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top formed after the demise of Moving Sidewalks, Gibbons' previous band, in 1969. Within a year, they signed with London Records and released "ZZ Top's First Album" (1971). Subsequent releases, such as "Tres Hombres" (1973) and "Fandango!" (1975), and the singles "La Grange" and "Tush", gained extensive radio airplay. By the mid-1970s, ZZ Top had become renowned in North America for its live act, including the Worldwide Texas Tour (1976— 1977), which was a critical and commercial success.


title: ZZ Top

text: After a hiatus, ZZ Top returned in 1979 with a new musical direction and image, with Gibbons and Hill wearing sunglasses and matching chest-length beards. With the album "El Loco" (1981), they began to experiment with synthesizers and drum machines. They established a more mainstream sound and gained international success with "Eliminator" (1983) and "Afterburner" (1985), which integrated influences from new wave, punk, and dance-rock. The popularity of these albums' music videos, including those for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs", gave them mass exposure on television channel MTV and made them prominent artists in 1980s pop culture. The "Afterburner" tour set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour of 1986.


title: ZZ Top

text: After gaining additional acclaim with the release of their tenth album "Recycler" (1990), and its accompanying tour, the group's experimentation continued with mixed success on the albums "Antenna" (1994), "Rhythmeen" (1996), "XXX" (1999), and "Mescalero" (2003). They most recently released "La Futura" (2012) and "Goin' 50" (2019), a compilation album commemorating the band's 50th anniversary. By the time of Hill's death in 2021, ZZ Top had become the longest-running band with an unchanged lineup in the history of popular music. Per Hill's wishes, he was replaced by their longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums and sold an estimated 50 million albums worldwide. They have won three MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2004, the members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2015, "Rolling Stone" ranked Gibbons the 32nd greatest guitarist of all time. The band members have supported campaigns and charities including Childline, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and a fundraiser for the Delta Blues Museum.


title: ZZ Top

text: The original line-up was formed in Houston and consisted of Gibbons, bassist/organist Lanier Greig, and drummer Dan Mitchell. The name of the band was Gibbons' idea. The band had a small apartment covered with concert posters and he noticed that many performers' names used initials. Gibbons particularly noticed B.B. King and Z. Z. Hill and thought of combining the two into "ZZ King", but considered it too similar to the original name. He then figured that "king is at the top" which gave him the idea of naming the band "ZZ Top".


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top was managed by Bill Ham, a Waxahachie, Texas, native who had befriended Gibbons a year earlier. They released their first single, "Salt Lick", in 1969, and the B-side contained the song "Miller's Farm". Both songs credited Gibbons as the composer. Immediately after the recording of "Salt Lick", Greig was replaced by bassist Billy Ethridge, a bandmate of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Mitchell was replaced by Frank Beard of American Blues. Due to lack of interest from the major American record companies, ZZ Top accepted a record deal from London Records, the American affiliate of the British Decca Records label. Unwilling to sign a recording contract, Ethridge quit the band and Dusty Hill, Frank Beard's American Blues bandmate, became his replacement in late 1969. At this moment, all three members of the band were 20 years old. After Hill moved from Dallas to Houston, ZZ Top signed with London in 1970. They performed their first concert together at a Knights of Columbus Hall in Beaumont, Texas, on February 10, 1970. The show was booked by KLVI radio personality Al Caldwell, who was also instrumental in broadcasting the band's first recordings.


title: ZZ Top

text: In addition to assuming the role as the band's leader, Gibbons became the main lyricist and musical arranger. With the assistance of Ham and engineer Robin Hood Brians, "ZZ Top's First Album" (1971) was released and exhibited the band's humor, with "barrelhouse" rhythms, distorted guitars, double entendres, and innuendo. The music and songs reflected ZZ Top's blues influences. Following their debut album, the band released "Rio Grande Mud" (1972), which produced their first charting single, "Francine".


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top released "Tres Hombres" in 1973, which reached the No. 8 position on the "Billboard 200" albums chart by early 1974. The album's sound was the result of the propulsive support provided by Hill and Beard, and Gibbons' "growling" guitar tone. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the album "brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process". The album included the boogie-driven "La Grange" (written about the Chicken Ranch, a notorious brothel in La Grange, Texas, that also inspired the musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"). On the subsequent tour, the band performed sold-out concerts in the US. During this tour, ZZ Top recorded the live tracks that would fill one side of their 1975 album, "Fandango!". "Fandango!", which also contained one side of new studio songs, was a top-ten album; its single "Tush" peaked at number 20 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top began the Worldwide Texas Tour in May 1976 to support "Fandango!", and the tour continued through 1977 with 98 shows over 18 months. "Tejas", recorded during a break in the tour and released in November 1976, was the final ZZ Top album under their contract with London Records. It was not as successful or as positively received as their previous two efforts, but reached number 17 on the "Billboard" 200. The singles from "Tejas", "It's Only Love" and "Arrested for Driving While Blind", both failed to crack the Top 40 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: ZZ Top

text: Exhausted following the Worldwide Texas Tour, the band needed a break. Frank Beard started by completing a 30 day detox program to kick his drug addiction, which had included a growing heroin problem. "Somewhere during that time I got a check for $72,000, my first big money, and I probably spent it all on drugs." Gibbons traveled to Europe, Beard went to Jamaica, and Hill went to Mexico. Hill also spent 3 months working at DFW Airport, saying he wanted to "feel normal" and "ground himself" after years spent performing. In order to help him blend in, he wore a nametag that just said "Joe". The band's break would eventually last almost 2 years. In 1979, when the group returned to record a new album, Gibbons and Hill were now sporting chest-length beards. ZZ Top signed with Warner Bros. Records and released the album "Degüello" in late 1979. Their hit singles from this period, "Cheap Sunglasses" and "Pearl Necklace", showed a more modern sound.


title: ZZ Top

text: While the "Degüello" album went platinum, it only reached number 24 on the "Billboard" chart. The album produced two popular singles: "I Thank You", a cover of the David Porter/Isaac Hayes composition originally recorded by Sam & Dave, and the band original "Cheap Sunglasses". The band remained a popular concert attraction and toured in support of "Degüello". In April 1980, ZZ Top made their first appearances in Europe, performing for the German music television show "Rockpalast" (later included on the 2009 DVD "") and the BBC show "The Old Grey Whistle Test". The band shared the BBC's studio with English electronic group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Gibbons felt "were great". Inspired by OMD, ZZ Top introduced a jerky dancing style to their live show and began to experiment with synthesizers, which featured prominently on the October 1981 album "El Loco". The album peaked at number 17 on the "Billboard" chart, and featured the singles "Tube Snake Boogie", "Pearl Necklace", and "Leila".


title: ZZ Top

text: Gibbons pushed the band into a more modern direction for "Eliminator", released in March 1983. The album featured two Top-40 singles ("Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Legs"), and two additional Top Rock hits ("Got Me Under Pressure" and "Sharp Dressed Man"), with the extended dance mix of "Legs" peaking at number 13 on the Club Play Singles chart. The album became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 10 million copies while peaking at No. 9 in the U.S. "Billboard" pop charts. It is the only ZZ Top album to reach Diamond status in the US.


title: ZZ Top

text: Several music videos from the album were in regular rotation on MTV, attracting many new fans. The band won their first MTV Video Music Awards in the categories of Best Group Video for "Legs", and Best Direction for "Sharp Dressed Man". The music videos were included in their "Greatest Hits" video, which was later released on DVD and quickly went multi-platinum.


title: ZZ Top

text: "Eliminator" retained Gibbons's signature guitar style while adding elements of new wave music; electronic band Depeche Mode have been cited as an influence on the album. To compose the songs, Gibbons worked closely with live-in engineer Linden Hudson at the band's rehearsal studio in Texas, setting a faster tempo with drum machines and synthesizers. The main recording sessions were once again supervised in Memphis by Terry Manning who collaborated with Gibbons to replace much of the contributions from Hill and Beard. Singer Jimi Jamison joined Manning to provide backing vocals for the album.


title: ZZ Top

text: Stage manager David Blayney described how Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album without receiving credit. The band recorded Hudson's song "Thug" without permission, finally paying him $600,000 in 1986 after he proved in court he held the copyright.


title: ZZ Top

text: Despite selling fewer copies than "Eliminator", "Afterburner" (1985) became ZZ Top's highest-charting album (No. 4 on the U.S. "Billboard" chart), with sales of five million copies. All of the singles from "Afterburner" were Top-40 hits, with "Sleeping Bag" and "Stages" reaching number one on the Mainstream Rock chart. The music video for "Velcro Fly" was choreographed by pop singer Paula Abdul. In 1987, ZZ Top released "The Six Pack", a collection of their first five albums plus "El Loco". The albums were remixed with new drum and guitar effects for a more "contemporary" sound similar to "Eliminator".


title: ZZ Top

text: "Recycler", released in 1990, was ZZ Top's final studio album under contract with Warner Records. "Recycler" was also the last of a distinct sonic trilogy in the ZZ Top catalogue, marking a return towards a simpler guitar-driven blues sound with less synthesizer and pop bounce than the previous two albums. This move did not entirely suit the fan base that "Eliminator" and "Afterburner" had built up, and while "Recycler" did achieve platinum status, it never matched the sales of those albums. However, the single "My Head's in Mississippi" did reach No. 1 on the "Billboard" Album Rock Tracks chart that year.


title: ZZ Top

text: In 1992, Warner released "ZZ Top's Greatest Hits", along with a new Rolling Stones-style cut, "Gun Love", and an Elvis-inflected video, "Viva Las Vegas". In 1993, ZZ Top inducted a major influence, Cream, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


title: ZZ Top

text: In 1994, the band signed a $35 million deal with RCA Records, releasing the million-selling "Antenna". Subsequent RCA albums, "Rhythmeen" (1996) and 1999's "XXX" (the second album to feature live tracks) sold well, but did not reach the levels enjoyed previously. In 2003, ZZ Top released a final RCA album, "Mescalero", an album thick with harsh Gibbons guitar and featuring a hidden track—a cover version of "As Time Goes By." RCA impresario Clive Davis wanted to do a collaboration record (in the mode of Carlos Santana's successful "Supernatural") for this album. In an interview in "Goldmine" magazine, Davis stated that artists Pink, Dave Matthews, and Wilco were among the artists slated for the project. ZZ Top performed "Tush" and "Legs" as part of the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show in 1997.


title: ZZ Top

text: A comprehensive four-CD collection of recordings from the London and Warner Bros. years, "Chrome, Smoke & BBQ", was released in 2003. It featured the band's first single (A- and B-side) and several rare B-side tracks, as well as a radio promotion from 1979, a live track, and several extended dance-mix versions of their biggest MTV hits. Three tracks from Billy Gibbons' pre-ZZ band, the Moving Sidewalks, were also included.


title: ZZ Top

text: In 2004, ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones gave the induction speech. ZZ Top gave a brief performance, playing "La Grange" and "Tush".


title: ZZ Top

text: In 2006 "Tres Hombres" and "Fandango!" received releases of expanded and remastered versions, which used the original mixes free from echo and drum machines and included additional bonus live tracks.


title: ZZ Top

text: The "Eliminator Collector's Edition" CD/DVD, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band's iconic RIAA Diamond Certified album, was released September 10, 2008. The release includes seven bonus tracks and a bonus DVD, including four television performances from "The Tube" in November 1983.


title: ZZ Top

text: The band performed at the 2009 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on the final night on March 22, 2009. In July, the band appeared on VH1's "Storytellers", in celebration of their four decades as recording artists.


title: ZZ Top

text: Billy Gibbons stated in an interview in August 2011 that a new album had been recorded, with initial recording taking place in Malibu, California, before moving to Houston, but was still unnamed and had yet to be mixed and mastered. Gibbons said that the expected release date was sometime in March or April 2012 but, later, a late summer or early fall release date was announced. The album was subsequently released on September 11, 2012.


title: ZZ Top

text: Entitled "La Futura", the album was produced by Rick Rubin. The first single from the album, "I Gotsta Get Paid", debuted in an advertising campaign for Jeremiah Weed Whiskey and appears on the soundtrack of the film "Battleship". The song itself is an interpretation of "25 Lighters" by Texan hip hop DJ DMD and rappers Lil' Keke and Fat Pat. The first four songs from "La Futura" debuted on June 5, 2012, on an EP called "Texicali". DJ Screw was a major influence on the album as well, particularly because Gibbons and Screw both worked with engineer G. L. Moon during the late 1990s.


title: ZZ Top

text: On March 3, 2015, ZZ Top began a North American tour in Red Bank, New Jersey, at the Count Basie Theatre. After rescheduled dates and additions, the tour ended in Highland Park, Illinois, at the Ravinia Pavilion on August 27, with the opening act Blackberry Smoke. Jeff Beck joined ZZ Top for seven concerts.


title: ZZ Top

text: On September 9, 2016, ZZ Top released "Tonite at Midnight: Live Greatest Hits from Around the World". In 2017, they began the 2017 Tonnage Tour, but canceled the last few dates due to Hill's declining health. In 2018, the band announced their six-day Las Vegas run of shows to be held at the Venetian, starting from April 20, 2019. Gibbons told "Las Vegas Review-Journal" in April 2020 that ZZ Top had been preparing another album. On June 21, 2020, Gibbons stated interest in having Beck appear.


title: ZZ Top

text: In July 2021, Hill was forced to leave a tour after a hip injury. ZZ Top performed without him at the Village Commons in New Lenox, Illinois, with Hill's guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass. Five days later, on July 28, ZZ Top announced that Hill had died at his home in Houston at the age of 72. His wife later reported that he had suffered from chronic bursitis. Per Hill's wishes, ZZ Top continued with Francis on bass. Hill had already recorded bass and vocals for ZZ Top's upcoming album.


title: ZZ Top

text: On July 22, 2022, ZZ Top released "Raw", the soundtrack for the band's 2019 documentary "That Little Ol' Band From Texas", via Shelter Records/BMG. It was one of their final live albums with Hill.


title: ZZ Top

text: On December 12, ZZ Top announced a co-headlining tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd for summer 2023, titled The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour. The tour is scheduled to commence July 21, 2023 in West Palm Beach and conclude September 17, 2023 in Camden.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top appeared in a cameo in "Back to the Future Part III" as an Old West band, playing an acoustic version of their song "Doubleback" with a large fiddle band.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top played Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, along with the Blues Brothers and James Brown. ZZ Top also performed at the 2008 Orange Bowl game in Miami, as well as the Auto Club 500 NASCAR event at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. On June 23, 2008, ZZ Top celebrated the release of their first live concert DVD titled "Live from Texas" with the world premiere, a special appearance, and charity auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in Houston. The DVD was officially released on June 24, 2008. The featured performance was culled from a concert filmed at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas, on November 1, 2007.


title: ZZ Top

text: On January 22, 2010, Billy Gibbons, Will Ferrell, and Beck joined a band playing Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" on Conan O'Brien's last "Tonight Show" appearance. O'Brien joined in on guitar.


title: ZZ Top

text: In June 2011, various media sources reported that the new song "Flyin' High" would debut in space. Astronaut and friend of ZZ Top Michael Fossum was given the released single to listen to on his trip to the International Space Station.


title: ZZ Top

text: On June 4, 2014, ZZ Top opened the CMT Awards ceremony, performing "La Grange" with Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line.


title: ZZ Top

text: "The Guardian" described ZZ Top as "part traditional, part contrary, and part of the deep seam of Texas weirdness that stretched from the 13th Floor Elevators through to the Butthole Surfers". "Texas Monthly" described their music as "loud, macho, greasy, and distorted", with "unrepentant misogynistic references". In the early 1980s, ZZ Top embraced synthesizers and drum machines, drawing inspiration from British electronic acts such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Depeche Mode (while deriving their dance moves from the former). Hill and Gibbons worked as a kind of double act, looking similar and employing simple stage choreography that Hill described as "low-energy, high-impact".


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top's music has been classified as blues rock, hard rock, boogie rock, Southern rock, blues and Texas blues.


title: ZZ Top

text: In addition to recording and performing concerts, ZZ Top has also been involved with films and television. In 1990, the group appeared as the "band at the party" in the film "Back to the Future Part III" and played the "Three Men in a Tub" in the movie "Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme". ZZ Top made further appearances, including the "Gumby with a Pokey" episode of "Two and a Half Men" in 2010 and the "Hank Gets Dusted" episode of "King of the Hill" in 2007. The band also guest hosted an episode of WWE Raw. Billy Gibbons had a recurring role as the father of Angela Montenegro in the television show "Bones"; though the character is never named, it is strongly implied that Gibbons is playing himself. Their song "Sharp Dressed Man" was one of the theme songs used for the television show "Duck Dynasty", and on the series finale of the show they appeared with Si Robertson as a vocalist to perform the song on stage during Robertson's retirement party. Black Dahlia Films, led by Jamie Burton Chamberlin, of Seattle and Los Angeles, has contributed documentaries and back line screen work (the footage on back screens during live shows) and has become an integral part of the band's film-making.


title: ZZ Top

text: In November 2020, it was announced that the 2019 Netflix documentary "That Little Ol' Band from Texas" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Film with the award ceremony scheduled for March 2021.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top's music videos won multiple VMA awards during the 1980s, topping the categories of Best Group Video, Best Direction, and Best Art Direction for "Legs", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Rough Boy", respectively. Among high honors for ZZ Top have been induction into Hollywood's RockWalk in 1994, the Texas House of Representatives naming them "Official Heroes for the State of Texas", a declaration of "ZZ Top Day" in Texas by then-governor Ann Richards on May 4, 1991, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. They were also given commemorative rings by actor Billy Bob Thornton from the VH1 Rock Honors in 2007.


title: ZZ Top

text: ZZ Top has also achieved several chart and album sales feats, including six number-one singles on the Mainstream Rock chart. From the RIAA, ZZ Top has earned four gold, three platinum and two multiple-platinum album certifications, and one diamond album.


title: Strawberry

text: The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; "Fragaria × ananassa") is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus "Fragaria", collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely appreciated for its characteristic aroma, bright red color, juicy texture, and sweetness. It is consumed in large quantities, either fresh or in such prepared foods as jam, juice, pies, ice cream, milkshakes, and chocolates. Artificial strawberry flavorings and aromas are also widely used in products such as candy, soap, lip gloss, perfume, and many others.


title: Strawberry

text: The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of "Fragaria virginiana" from eastern North America and "Fragaria chiloensis", which was brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. Cultivars of "Fragaria" × "ananassa" have replaced, in commercial production, the woodland strawberry ("Fragaria vesca"), which was the first strawberry species cultivated in the early 17th century.


title: Strawberry

text: The strawberry is not, from a botanical point of view, a berry. Technically, it is an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Each apparent "seed" (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it.


title: Strawberry

text: The first garden strawberry was grown in Brittany, France, during the late 18th century. Prior to this, wild strawberries and cultivated selections from wild strawberry species were the common source of the fruit.


title: Strawberry

text: The strawberry fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use. The French began taking the strawberry from the forest to their gardens for harvest in the 14th century. Charles V, France's king from 1364 to 1380, had 1,200 strawberry plants in his royal garden. In the early 15th century western European monks were using the wild strawberry in their illuminated manuscripts. The strawberry is found in Italian, Flemish, and German art, and in English miniatures. The entire strawberry plant was used to treat depressive illnesses.


title: Strawberry

text: By the 16th century, references of cultivation of the strawberry became more common. People began using it for its supposed medicinal properties and botanists began naming the different species. In England the demand for regular strawberry farming had increased by the mid-16th century.


title: Strawberry

text: The combination of strawberries and cream was created by Thomas Wolsey in the court of King Henry VIII. Instructions for growing and harvesting strawberries showed up in writing in 1578. By the end of the 16th century three European species had been cited: "F. vesca", "F. moschata", and "F. viridis". The garden strawberry was transplanted from the forests and then the plants would be propagated asexually by cutting off the runners.


title: Strawberry

text: Two subspecies of "F. vesca" were identified: "F. sylvestris alba" and "F. sylvestris semperflorens". The introduction of "F. virginiana" from eastern North America to Europe in the 17th century is an important part of history because it is one of the two species that gave rise to the modern strawberry. The new species gradually spread through the continent and did not become completely appreciated until the end of the 18th century. A French excursion journeyed to Chile in 1712, which led to the introduction of a strawberry plant with female flowers that resulted in the common strawberry.


title: Strawberry

text: The Mapuche and Huilliche Indians of Chile cultivated the female strawberry species until 1551, when the Spanish came to conquer the land. In 1765, a European explorer recorded the cultivation of "F. chiloensis", the Chilean strawberry. At first introduction to Europe, the plants grew vigorously, but produced no fruit. French gardeners in Brest and Cherbourg around the mid-18th century first noticed that when "F. moschata" and "F. virginiana" were planted in between rows of "F. chiloensis", the Chilean strawberry would bear abundant and unusually large fruits. Soon after, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne began to study the breeding of strawberries and made several discoveries crucial to the science of plant breeding, such as the sexual reproduction of the strawberry which he published in 1766. Duchesne discovered that the female "F. chiloensis" plants could only be pollinated by male "F. moschata" or "F. virginiana" plants. This is when the Europeans became aware that plants had the ability to produce male-only or female-only flowers.


title: Strawberry

text: Duchesne determined "F. ananassa" to be a hybrid of "F. chiloensis" and "F. virginiana". "F. ananassa", which produces large fruits, is so named because it resembles the pineapple in smell, taste and berry shape. In England, many varieties of "F. ananassa" were produced, and they form the basis of modern varieties of strawberries currently cultivated and consumed. Further breeding were also conducted in Europe and America to improve the hardiness, disease resistance, size, and taste.


title: Strawberry

text: Strawberries are often grouped according to their flowering habit. Traditionally, this has consisted of a division between "June-bearing" strawberries, which bear their fruit in the early summer and "ever-bearing" strawberries, which often bear several crops of fruit throughout the season. One plant throughout a season may produce 50 to 60 times or roughly once every three days.


title: Strawberry

text: Research published in 2001 showed that strawberries actually occur in three basic flowering habits: short-day, long-day, and day-neutral. These refer to the day-length sensitivity of the plant and the type of photoperiod that induces flower formation. Day-neutral cultivars produce flowers regardless of the photoperiod.


title: Strawberry

text: Strawberry cultivars vary widely in size, color, flavor, shape, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant. On average, a strawberry has about 200 seeds on its external membrane. Some vary in foliage, and some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. In most cases, the flowers appear hermaphroditic in structure, but function as either male or female.


title: Strawberry

text: For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and, in general, distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two general models—annual plasticulture, or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds. Greenhouses produce a small amount of strawberries during the off season.


title: Strawberry

text: The bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system. In this method, raised beds are formed each year, fumigated, and covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants, usually obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering, and irrigation tubing is run underneath. Runners are removed from the plants as they appear, to encourage the plants to put most of their energy into fruit development. After harvesting, the plastic is removed and the plants are plowed into the ground. Strawberry plants produce more and better fruit when they are young. After a year or two, they decline. Replacing them annually improves yields and enables denser planting. However, this necessitates a longer growing season, for the plants to establish themselves. It also costs more to annually purchase plants, form new mounds, and cover them with (new) plastic.


title: Strawberry

text: The other major method retains plants for multiple years. This is most common in colder climates. The plants are grown in rows or on mounds. This method requires lower investment and lower maintenance, overall. Yields are typically lower than in plasticulture.


title: Strawberry

text: Another method uses a compost sock. Plants grown in compost socks have been shown to produce significantly more flavonoids, anthocyanins, fructose, glucose, sucrose, malic acid, and citric acid than fruit produced in the black plastic mulch or matted row systems. Similar results in an earlier study conducted by USDA confirms how compost plays a role in the bioactive qualities of two strawberry cultivars.


title: Strawberry

text: Strawberries may also be propagated by seed, though this is primarily a hobby activity, and is not widely practiced commercially. A few seed-propagated cultivars have been developed for home use, and research into growing from seed commercially is ongoing. Seeds (achenes) are acquired either via commercial seed suppliers, or by collecting and saving them from the fruit.


title: Strawberry

text: Strawberries can also be grown indoors in strawberry pots. Strawberries won't grow indoors in winter unless aided by a combination of blue and red LED lights. In southern lands, such as Florida, winter is the natural growing season and harvesting begins in mid-November.


title: Strawberry

text: The Kashubian strawberry ("Truskawka kaszubska" or "Kaszëbskô malëna") is the first Polish fruit to be given commercial protection under EU law. It is produced in Kartuzy, Kościerzyna and Bytów counties and in the municipalities of Przywidz, Wejherowo, Luzino, Szemud, Linia, Łęczyce and Cewice in Kashubia. Only the following varieties may be sold as "kaszëbskô malëna": Senga Sengana, Elsanta, Honeoye that have been graded as Extra or Class I.


title: Strawberry

text: Most strawberry plants are now fed with artificial fertilizers, both before and after harvesting, and often before planting in plasticulture.


title: Strawberry

text: To maintain top quality, berries are harvested at least every other day. The berries are picked with the caps still attached and with at least half an inch of stem left. Strawberries need to remain on the plant to fully ripen because they do not continue to ripen after being picked. Rotted and overripe berries are removed to minimize insect and disease problems. The berries do not get washed until just before consumption.


title: Strawberry

text: Soil test information and plant analysis results are used to determine fertility practices. Nitrogen fertilizer is needed at the beginning of every planting year. There are normally adequate levels of phosphorus and potash when fields have been fertilized for top yields. To provide more organic matter, a cover crop of wheat or rye is planted in the winter before planting the strawberries. Strawberries prefer a pH from 5.5 to 6.5, so lime is usually not applied.


title: Strawberry

text: The harvesting and cleaning process has not changed substantially over time. The delicate strawberries are still harvested by hand. Grading and packing often occurs in the field, rather than in a processing facility. In large operations, strawberries are cleaned by means of water streams and shaking conveyor belts.


title: Strawberry

text: Around 200 species of pests are known to attack strawberries both directly and indirectly. These pests include slugs, moths, fruit flies, chafers, strawberry root weevils, strawberry thrips, strawberry sap beetles, strawberry crown moth, mites, aphids, and others. The caterpillars of a number of species of Lepidoptera feed on strawberry plants. For example, the ghost moth is known to be a pest of the strawberry plant.


title: Strawberry

text: The strawberry aphid, "Chaetosiphon fragaefolii", is a bug species found in the United States (Arizona), Argentina and Chile. It is a vector of the strawberry mild yellow-edge virus.


title: Strawberry

text: The amounts of pesticides required for industrial production of strawberries ( in California per acre) have led to the strawberry leading the list of EWG's "Dirty Dozen" of pesticide-contaminated produce.


title: Strawberry

text: Strawberry plants can fall victim to a number of diseases, especially when subjected to stress. The leaves may be infected by powdery mildew, leaf spot (caused by the fungus "Sphaerella fragariae"), leaf blight (caused by the fungus "Phomopsis obscurans"), and by a variety of slime molds. The crown and roots may fall victim to red stele, verticillium wilt, black root rot, and nematodes. The fruits are subject to damage from gray mold ("Botrytis cinerea"), rhizopus rot, and leather rot. To prevent root-rotting, strawberries should be planted every four to five years in a new bed, at a different site.


title: Strawberry

text: The , "AtNPR1", confers "A. thaliana"s broad-spectrum resistance when transexpressed in "F. ananassa". This resistance includes resistance to anthracnose, powdery mildew, and angular leaf spot.


title: Strawberry

text: A 1997 study assessed many and found all effective against gray mold ("B. cinerea"). Both Tribute and Chandler were tested and benefited from the treatments, although there are large differences between the substance x variety effects. Strawberry metabolizes these volatiles, and does so more rapidly than either blackberry or grape.


title: Strawberry

text: The plants can also develop disease from temperature extremes during winter. Watering strawberry roots, and not the leaves, is preferred as moisture on leaves encourages fungal growth. Strawberries may also often appear conjoined together or deformed due to poor pollination.


title: Strawberry

text: Strawberries are popular in home gardens, and numerous cultivars have been selected for consumption and for exhibition purposes. The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:


title: Strawberry

text: In 2020, world production of strawberries was 8.9 million tonnes, led by China with 38% of the total, and the United States and Egypt as other significant producers (see table).


title: Strawberry

text: Due the relatively fragile nature of the strawberry, approximately 35 percent of the $2.2 billion United States crop was spoiled in 2020. This led to an Idaho company planning to launch gene-edited strawberries in the near future in an effort to make them more durable and hardier. In the U.S. it costs growers around $35,000 per acre to plant and $35,000 per acre to harvest strawberries now, and more durable berries might reduce the rate of spoilage.


title: Strawberry

text: In the United States in 2017, the collective commercial production of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries was a $6 billion industry dominated by the California growing and marketing company Driscoll's. In 2017, strawberries alone were a $3.5 billion market of which 82% was for fresh fruit.


title: Strawberry

text: To increase consumer demand in the 21st century, commercial producers of strawberries cultivated them mainly for favorable aroma characteristics similar to those of wild strawberries, in addition to having large size, heart-shape, glossy red exterior, firmness, and slow ripening for long shelf-life favorable to ship by ground transportation from farms to stores nationwide for consumption within two weeks of harvest. In US and Canadian grocery stores, fresh strawberries are typically sold in plastic clamshells, and are among the top fresh produce items in grocery revenues. One marketing analysis identified strawberries and other berries as a source of "happiness" for consumers.


title: Strawberry

text: In addition to being consumed fresh, strawberries can be frozen or made into jam or preserves, as well as dried and used in prepared foods, such as cereal bars. Strawberries and strawberry flavorings are a popular addition to dairy products, such as strawberry milk, strawberry ice cream, strawberry milkshakes/smoothies and strawberry yogurts.


title: Strawberry

text: In the United Kingdom, "strawberries and cream" is a popular dessert consumed at the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Strawberries and cream is also a staple snack in Mexico, usually available at ice cream parlors. In Sweden, strawberries are a traditional dessert served on Midsummer's Eve. Depending on area, strawberry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, or strawberry shortcake are also common. In Greece, strawberries may be sprinkled with sugar and then dipped in Metaxa, a brandy, and served as a dessert. In Italy, strawberries are used for various desserts and as a common flavoring for gelato (gelato alla fragola).


title: Strawberry

text: Raw strawberries are 91% water, 8% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contain negligible fat (table). A 100 gram reference amount of strawberries supplies 33 kilocalories, is a rich source of vitamin C (71% of the Daily Value, DV), a good source of manganese (18% DV), and provides several other vitamins and dietary minerals in small amounts. Strawberries contain a modest amount of essential unsaturated fatty acids in the achene (seed) oil.


title: Strawberry

text: Garden strawberries contain the dimeric ellagitannin agrimoniin which is an isomer of sanguiin H-6. Other polyphenols present include flavonoids, such as anthocyanins, flavanols, flavonols and phenolic acids, such as hydroxybenzoic acid and hydroxycinnamic acid. Strawberries contain fisetin and possess higher levels of this flavonoid than other fruits. Although achenes comprise only about 1% of total fresh weight of a strawberry, they contribute 11% of the total polyphenol in the whole fruit; achene phytochemicals include ellagic acid, ellagic acid glycosides, and ellagitannins.


title: Strawberry

text: Pelargonidin-3-glucoside is the major anthocyanin in strawberries and cyanidin-3-glucoside is found in smaller proportions. Although glucose seems to be the most common substituting sugar in strawberry anthocyanins, rutinose, arabinose, and rhamnose conjugates have been found in some strawberry cultivars.


title: Strawberry

text: Purple minor pigments consisting of dimeric anthocyanins (flavanol-anthocyanin adducts : catechin(4α→8)pelargonidin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside, epicatechin(4α→8)pelargonidin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside, afzelechin(4α→8)pelargonidin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside and epiafzelechin(4α→8)pelargonidin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside) can also be found in strawberries.


title: Strawberry

text: As strawberry flavor and fragrance are characteristics that may appeal to consumers, they are used widely in a variety of manufacturing, including foods, beverages, confections, perfumes and cosmetics.


title: Strawberry

text: Sweetness, fragrance and complex flavor are favorable attributes. In plant breeding and farming, emphasis is placed on sugars, acids, and volatile compounds, which improve the taste and fragrance of a ripe strawberry. Esters, terpenes, and furans are chemical compounds having the strongest relationships to strawberry flavor and fragrance, with a total of 31 out of some 360 volatile compounds significantly correlated to favorable flavor and fragrance. In breeding strawberries for the commercial market in the United States, the volatile compounds, methyl anthranilate and gamma-decalactone prominent in aromatic wild strawberries, are especially desired for their "sweet and fruity" aroma characteristics.


title: Strawberry

text: Modern strawberries are octoploid (8 sets of chromosomes). The genome sequence of the garden strawberry was published in 2019.


title: Strawberry

text: Some people experience an anaphylactoid reaction to eating strawberries. The most common form of this reaction is oral allergy syndrome, but symptoms may also mimic hay fever or include dermatitis or hives, and, in severe cases, may cause breathing problems. Proteomic studies indicate that the allergen may be tied to a protein for the red anthocyanin biosynthesis expressed in strawberry ripening, named Fra a1 (Fragaria allergen1). Homologous proteins are found in birch pollen and apple, suggesting that people may develop cross-reactivity to all three species.


title: Strawberry

text: White-fruited strawberry cultivars, lacking Fra a1, may be an option for strawberry allergy sufferers. Since they lack a protein necessary for normal ripening by anthocyanin synthesis of red pigments, they do not turn the mature berries of other cultivars red. They ripen but remain white, pale yellow or "golden", appearing like immature berries; this also has the advantage of making them less attractive to birds. A virtually allergen-free cultivar named 'Sofar' is available.


title: Snake

text: Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamidae, and Pygopodidae).


title: Snake

text: Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most smaller land masses; exceptions include some large islands, such as Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, the Hawaiian archipelago, and the islands of New Zealand, as well as many small islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific oceans. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans. Around thirty families are currently recognized, comprising about 520 genera and about 3,900 species. They range in size from the tiny, Barbados threadsnake to the reticulated python of in length. The fossil species "Titanoboa cerrejonensis" was long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards, perhaps during the Jurassic period, with the earliest known fossils dating to between 143 and 167 Ma ago. The diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene epoch ( 66 to 56 Ma ago, after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event). The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus.


title: Snake

text: Most species of snake are nonvenomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some possess venom that is potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction.


title: Snake

text: The English word "snake" comes from Old English , itself from Proto-Germanic (cf. Germanic 'ring snake', Swedish 'grass snake'), from Proto-Indo-European root 'to crawl to creep', which also gave "sneak" as well as Sanskrit 'snake'. The word ousted "adder", as "adder" went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English was the general word for snake. The other term, "serpent", is from French, ultimately from Indo-European 'to creep', which also gave Ancient Greek () 'I crawl'.


title: Snake

text: The fossil record of snakes is relatively poor because snake skeletons are typically small and fragile making fossilization uncommon. Fossils readily identifiable as snakes (though often retaining hind limbs) first appear in the fossil record during the Cretaceous period. The earliest known true snake fossils (members of the crown group Serpentes) come from the marine simoliophiids, the oldest of which is the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian age) "Haasiophis terrasanctus", dated to between 112 and 94 million years old.


title: Snake

text: Based on comparative anatomy, there is consensus that snakes descended from lizards. Pythons and boas—primitive groups among modern snakes—have vestigial hind limbs: tiny, clawed digits known as anal spurs, which are used to grasp during mating. The families Leptotyphlopidae and Typhlopidae also possess remnants of the pelvic girdle, appearing as horny projections when visible.


title: Snake

text: Front limbs are nonexistent in all known snakes. This is caused by the evolution of their Hox genes, controlling limb morphogenesis. The axial skeleton of the snakes' common ancestor, like most other tetrapods, had regional specializations consisting of cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), lumbar (lower back), sacral (pelvic), and caudal (tail) vertebrae. Early in snake evolution, the Hox gene expression in the axial skeleton responsible for the development of the thorax became dominant. As a result, the vertebrae anterior to the hindlimb buds (when present) all have the same thoracic-like identity (except from the atlas, axis, and 1–3 neck vertebrae). In other words, most of a snake's skeleton is an extremely extended thorax. Ribs are found exclusively on the thoracic vertebrae. Neck, lumbar and pelvic vertebrae are very reduced in number (only 2–10 lumbar and pelvic vertebrae are present), while only a short tail remains of the caudal vertebrae. However, the tail is still long enough to be of important use in many species, and is modified in some aquatic and tree-dwelling species.


title: Snake

text: Many modern snake groups originated during the Paleocene, alongside the adaptive radiation of mammals following the extinction of (non-avian) dinosaurs. The expansion of grasslands in North America also led to an explosive radiation among snakes. Previously, snakes were a minor component of the North American fauna, but during the Miocene, the number of species and their prevalence increased dramatically with the first appearances of vipers and elapids in North America and the significant diversification of Colubridae (including the origin of many modern genera such as Nerodia, Lampropeltis, Pituophis, and Pantherophis).


title: Snake

text: There is fossil evidence to suggest that snakes may have evolved from burrowing lizards, during the Cretaceous Period. An early fossil snake relative, "Najash rionegrina", was a two-legged burrowing animal with a sacrum, and was fully terrestrial. One extant analog of these putative ancestors is the earless monitor "Lanthanotus" of Borneo (though it also is semiaquatic). Subterranean species evolved bodies streamlined for burrowing, and eventually lost their limbs. According to this hypothesis, features such as the transparent, fused eyelids (brille) and loss of external ears evolved to cope with fossorial difficulties, such as scratched corneas and dirt in the ears. Some primitive snakes are known to have possessed hindlimbs, but their pelvic bones lacked a direct connection to the vertebrae. These include fossil species like "Haasiophis", "Pachyrhachis" and "Eupodophis", which are slightly older than "Najash".


title: Snake

text: This hypothesis was strengthened in 2015 by the discovery of a 113-million-year-old fossil of a four-legged snake in Brazil that has been named "Tetrapodophis amplectus". It has many snake-like features, is adapted for burrowing and its stomach indicates that it was preying on other animals. It is currently uncertain if "Tetrapodophis" is a snake or another species, in the squamate order, as a snake-like body has independently evolved at least 26 times. "Tetrapodophis" does not have distinctive snake features in its spine and skull. A study in 2021 places the animal in a group of extinct marine lizards from the Cretaceous period known as dolichosaurs and not directly related to snakes.


title: Snake

text: An alternative hypothesis, based on morphology, suggests the ancestors of snakes were related to mosasaurs—extinct aquatic reptiles from the Cretaceous—forming the clade Pythonomorpha. According to this hypothesis, the fused, transparent eyelids of snakes are thought to have evolved to combat marine conditions (corneal water loss through osmosis), and the external ears were lost through disuse in an aquatic environment. This ultimately led to an animal similar to today's sea snakes. In the Late Cretaceous, snakes recolonized land, and continued to diversify into today's snakes. Fossilized snake remains are known from early Late Cretaceous marine sediments, which is consistent with this hypothesis; particularly so, as they are older than the terrestrial "Najash rionegrina". Similar skull structure, reduced or absent limbs, and other anatomical features found in both mosasaurs and snakes lead to a positive cladistical correlation, although some of these features are shared with varanids.


title: Snake

text: Genetic studies in recent years have indicated snakes are not as closely related to monitor lizards as was once believed—and therefore not to mosasaurs, the proposed ancestor in the aquatic scenario of their evolution. However, more evidence links mosasaurs to snakes than to varanids. Fragmented remains found from the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous indicate deeper fossil records for these groups, which may potentially refute either hypothesis.


title: Snake

text: Both fossils and phylogenetic studies demonstrate that snakes evolved from lizards, hence the question became which genetic changes led to limb loss in the snake ancestor. Limb loss is actually very common in extant reptiles and has happened dozens of times within skinks, anguids, and other lizards.


title: Snake

text: In 2016, two studies reported that limb loss in snakes is associated with DNA mutations in the Zone of Polarizing Activity Regulatory Sequence (ZRS), a regulatory region of the sonic hedgehog gene which is critically required for limb development. More advanced snakes have no remnants of limbs, but basal snakes such as pythons and boas do have traces of highly reduced, vestigial hind limbs. Python embryos even have fully developed hind limb buds, but their later development is stopped by the DNA mutations in the ZRS.


title: Snake

text: There are about 3,900 species of snakes, ranging as far northward as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and southward through Australia. Snakes can be found on every continent except Antarctica, as well as in the sea, and as high as in the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. There are numerous islands from which snakes are absent, such as Ireland, Iceland, and New Zealand (although New Zealand's waters are infrequently visited by the yellow-bellied sea snake and the banded sea krait).


title: Snake

text: All modern snakes are grouped within the suborder Serpentes in Linnean taxonomy, part of the order Squamata, though their precise placement within squamates remains controversial.


title: Snake

text: The two infraorders of Serpentes are: Alethinophidia and Scolecophidia. This separation is based on morphological characteristics and mitochondrial DNA sequence similarity. Alethinophidia is sometimes split into Henophidia and Caenophidia, with the latter consisting of "colubroid" snakes (colubrids, vipers, elapids, hydrophiids, and atractaspids) and acrochordids, while the other alethinophidian families comprise Henophidia. While not extant today, the Madtsoiidae, a family of giant, primitive, python-like snakes, was around until 50,000 years ago in Australia, represented by genera such as "Wonambi".


title: Snake

text: There are numerous debates in the systematics within the group. For instance, many sources classify Boidae and Pythonidae as one family, while some keep the Elapidae and Hydrophiidae (sea snakes) separate for practical reasons despite their extremely close relation.


title: Snake

text: Recent molecular studies support the monophyly of the clades of modern snakes, scolecophidians, typhlopids + anomalepidids, alethinophidians, core alethinophidians, uropeltids ("Cylindrophis", "Anomochilus", uropeltines), macrostomatans, booids, boids, pythonids and caenophidians.


title: Snake

text: While snakes are limbless reptiles, evolved from (and grouped with) lizards, there are many other species of lizards that have lost their limbs independently but which superficially look similar to snakes. These include the slowworm and glass snake.


title: Snake

text: Other serpentine tetrapods that are unrelated to snakes include caecilians (amphibians), amphisbaenians (near-lizard squamates), and the extinct aistopods (amphibians).


title: Snake

text: The now extinct "Titanoboa cerrejonensis" was in length. By comparison, the largest extant snakes are the reticulated python, measuring about long, and the green anaconda, which measures about long and is considered the heaviest snake on Earth at .


title: Snake

text: At the other end of the scale, the smallest extant snake is "Leptotyphlops carlae", with a length of about . Most snakes are fairly small animals, approximately in length.


title: Snake

text: Pit vipers, pythons, and some boas have infrared-sensitive receptors in deep grooves on the snout, allowing them to "see" the radiated heat of warm-blooded prey. In pit vipers, the grooves are located between the nostril and the eye in a large "pit" on each side of the head. Other infrared-sensitive snakes have multiple, smaller labial pits lining the upper lip, just below the nostrils.


title: Snake

text: A snake tracks its prey using smell, collecting airborne particles with its forked tongue, then passing them to the vomeronasal organ or "Jacobson's organ" in the mouth for examination. The fork in the tongue provides a sort of directional sense of smell and taste simultaneously. The snake's tongue is constantly in motion, sampling particles from the air, ground, and water, analyzing the chemicals found, and determining the presence of prey or predators in the local environment. In water-dwelling snakes, such as the anaconda, the tongue functions efficiently underwater.


title: Snake

text: The underside of a snake is very sensitive to vibration, allowing the snake to detect approaching animals by sensing faint vibrations in the ground.


title: Snake

text: Snake vision varies greatly between species. Some have keen eyesight and others are only able to distinguish light from dark, but the important trend is that a snake's visual perception is adequate enough to track movements. Generally, vision is best in tree-dwelling snakes and weakest in burrowing snakes. Some have binocular vision, where both eyes are capable of focusing on the same point, an example of this being the Asian vine snake. Most snakes focus by moving the lens back and forth in relation to the retina. Diurnal snakes have round pupils and many nocturnal snakes have slit pupils. Most species possess three visual pigments and are probably able to see two primary colors in daylight. It has been concluded that the last common ancestors of all snakes had UV-sensitive vision, but most snakes that depend on their eyesight to hunt in daylight have evolved lenses that act like sunglasses for filtering out the UV-light, which probably also sharpens their vision by improving the contrast.


title: Snake

text: The skin of a snake is covered in scales. Contrary to the popular notion of snakes being slimy (because of possible confusion of snakes with worms), snakeskin has a smooth, dry texture. Most snakes use specialized belly scales to travel, allowing them to grip surfaces. The body scales may be smooth, keeled, or granular. The eyelids of a snake are transparent "spectacle" scales, also known as brille, which remain permanently closed.


title: Snake

text: The shedding of scales is called "ecdysis" (or in normal usage, "molting" or "sloughing"). Snakes shed the complete outer layer of skin in one piece. Snake scales are not discrete, but extensions of the epidermis—hence they are not shed separately but as a complete outer layer during each molt, akin to a sock being turned inside out.


title: Snake

text: Snakes have a wide diversity of skin coloration patterns which are often related to behavior, such as the tendency to have to flee from predators. Snakes that are at a high risk of predation tend to be plain, or have longitudinal stripes, providing few reference points to predators, thus allowing the snake to escape without being noticed. Plain snakes usually adopt active hunting strategies, as their pattern allows them to send little information to prey about motion. Blotched snakes usually use ambush-based strategies, likely because it helps them blend into an environment with irregularly shaped objects, like sticks or rocks. Spotted patterning can similarly help snakes to blend into their environment.


title: Snake

text: The shape and number of scales on the head, back, and belly are often characteristic and used for taxonomic purposes. Scales are named mainly according to their positions on the body. In "advanced" (Caenophidian) snakes, the broad belly scales and rows of dorsal scales correspond to the vertebrae, allowing these to be counted without the need for dissection.


title: Snake

text: Molting (or "ecdysis") serves a number of purposes. It allows old, worn skin to be replaced and it can remove parasites such as mites and ticks that live in the skin. It's also been observed in snakes that molting can be synced to mating cycles. Shedding skin can release pheromones and revitalize color and patterns of the skin to increase attraction of mates. Renewal of the skin by molting supposedly allows growth in some animals such as insects, but this has been disputed in the case of snakes.


title: Snake

text: Molting occurs periodically throughout the life of a snake. Before each molt, the snake stops eating and often hides or moves to a safe place. Just before shedding, the skin becomes dull and dry looking and the snake's eyes turn cloudy or blue-colored. The inner surface of the old skin liquefies, causing it to separate from the new skin beneath it. After a few days, the eyes become clear and the snake "crawls" out of its old skin, which splits close to the snake's mouth. The snake rubs its body against rough surfaces to aid in the shedding of its old skin. In many cases, the cast skin peels backward over the body from head to tail in one piece, like pulling a sock off inside-out, revealing a new, larger, brighter layer of skin which has formed underneath.


title: Snake

text: A young snake that is still growing may shed its skin up to four times a year, but an older snake may shed only once or twice a year. The discarded skin carries a perfect imprint of the scale pattern, so it is usually possible to identify the snake from the cast skin if it is reasonably intact. This periodic renewal has led to the snake being a symbol of healing and medicine, as pictured in the Rod of Asclepius.


title: Snake

text: Scale counts can sometimes be used to identify the sex of a snake when the species is not distinctly sexually dimorphic. A probe is fully inserted into the cloaca, marked at the point where it stops, then removed and measured against the subcaudal scales. The scalation count determines whether the snake is a male or female, as the hemipenes of a male will probe to a different depth (usually longer) than the cloaca of a female.


title: Snake

text: The skeleton of most snakes consists solely of the skull, hyoid, vertebral column, and ribs, though henophidian snakes retain vestiges of the pelvis and rear limbs.


title: Snake

text: The skull consists of a solid and complete neurocranium, to which many of the other bones are only loosely attached, particularly the highly mobile jaw bones, which facilitate manipulation and ingestion of large prey items. The left and right sides of the lower jaw are joined only by a flexible ligament at the anterior tips, allowing them to separate widely, and the posterior end of the lower jaw bones articulate with a quadrate bone, allowing further mobility. The mandible and quadrate bones can pick up ground-borne vibrations; because the sides of the lower jaw can move independently of one another, a snake resting its jaw on a surface has sensitive stereo auditory perception, used for detecting the position of prey. The jaw–quadrate–stapes pathway is capable of detecting vibrations on the angstrom scale, despite the absence of an outer ear and the lack of an impedance matching mechanism—provided by the ossicles in other vertebrates—for receiving vibrations from the air.


title: Snake

text: The hyoid is a small bone located posterior and ventral to the skull, in the 'neck' region, which serves as an attachment for the muscles of the snake's tongue, as it does in all other tetrapods.


title: Snake

text: The vertebral column consists of between 200 and 400 vertebrae, or sometimes more. The body vertebrae each have two ribs articulating with them. The tail vertebrae are comparatively few in number (often less than 20% of the total) and lack ribs. The vertebrae have projections that allow for strong muscle attachment, enabling locomotion without limbs.


title: Snake

text: Caudal autotomy (self-amputation of the tail), a feature found in some lizards, is absent in most snakes. In the rare cases where it does exist in snakes, caudal autotomy is intervertebral (meaning the separation of adjacent vertebrae), unlike that in lizards, which is intravertebral, i.e. the break happens along a predefined fracture plane present on a vertebra.


title: Snake

text: In some snakes, most notably boas and pythons, there are vestiges of the hindlimbs in the form of a pair of pelvic spurs. These small, claw-like protrusions on each side of the cloaca are the external portion of the vestigial hindlimb skeleton, which includes the remains of an ilium and femur.


title: Snake

text: Snakes and other non-archosaur (crocodilians, dinosaurs + birds and allies) reptiles have a three-chambered heart that controls the circulatory system via the left and right atrium, and one ventricle. Internally, the ventricle is divided into three interconnected cavities: the cavum arteriosum, the cavum pulmonale, and the cavum venosum. The cavum venosum receives deoxygenated blood from the right atrium and the cavum arteriosum receives oxygenated blood from the left atrium. Located beneath the cavum venosum is the cavum pulmonale, which pumps blood to the pulmonary trunk.


title: Snake

text: The snake's heart is encased in a sac, called the "pericardium", located at the bifurcation of the bronchi. The heart is able to move around, owing to the lack of a diaphragm; this adjustment protects the heart from potential damage when large ingested prey is passed through the esophagus. The spleen is attached to the gall bladder and pancreas and filters the blood. The thymus, located in fatty tissue above the heart, is responsible for the generation of immune cells in the blood. The cardiovascular system of snakes is unique for the presence of a renal portal system in which the blood from the snake's tail passes through the kidneys before returning to the heart.


title: Snake

text: The vestigial left lung is often small or sometimes even absent, as snakes' tubular bodies require all of their organs to be long and thin. In the majority of species, only one lung is functional. This lung contains a vascularized anterior portion and a posterior portion that does not function in gas exchange. This 'saccular lung' is used for hydrostatic purposes to adjust buoyancy in some aquatic snakes and its function remains unknown in terrestrial species. Many organs that are paired, such as kidneys or reproductive organs, are staggered within the body, one located ahead of the other.


title: Snake

text: Cobras, vipers, and closely related species use venom to immobilize, injure, or kill their prey. The venom is modified saliva, delivered through fangs. The fangs of 'advanced' venomous snakes like viperids and elapids are hollow, allowing venom to be injected more effectively, and the fangs of rear-fanged snakes such as the boomslang simply have a groove on the posterior edge to channel venom into the wound. Snake venoms are often prey-specific, and their role in self-defense is secondary.


title: Snake

text: Venom, like all salivary secretions, is a predigestant that initiates the breakdown of food into soluble compounds, facilitating proper digestion. Even nonvenomous snakebites (like any animal bite) cause tissue damage.


title: Snake

text: Certain birds, mammals, and other snakes (such as kingsnakes) that prey on venomous snakes have developed resistance and even immunity to certain venoms. Venomous snakes include three families of snakes, and do not constitute a formal taxonomic classification group.


title: Snake

text: The colloquial term "poisonous snake" is generally an incorrect label for snakes. A poison is inhaled or ingested, whereas venom produced by snakes is injected into its victim via fangs. There are, however, two exceptions: "Rhabdophis" sequesters toxins from the toads it eats, then secretes them from nuchal glands to ward off predators; and a small unusual population of garter snakes in the US state of Oregon retains enough toxins in their livers from ingested newts to be effectively poisonous to small local predators (such as crows and foxes).


title: Snake

text: Snake venoms are complex mixtures of proteins, and are stored in venom glands at the back of the head. In all venomous snakes, these glands open through ducts into grooved or hollow teeth in the upper jaw. The proteins can potentially be a mix of neurotoxins (which attack the nervous system), hemotoxins (which attack the circulatory system), cytotoxins (which attack the cells directly), bungarotoxins (related to neurotoxins, but also directly affect muscle tissue), and many other toxins that affect the body in different ways. Almost all snake venom contains "hyaluronidase", an enzyme that ensures rapid diffusion of the venom.


title: Snake

text: Venomous snakes that use hemotoxins usually have fangs in the front of their mouths, making it easier for them to inject the venom into their victims. Some snakes that use neurotoxins (such as the mangrove snake) have fangs in the back of their mouths, with the fangs curled backwards. This makes it difficult both for the snake to use its venom and for scientists to milk them. Elapids, however, such as cobras and kraits are "proteroglyphous"—they possess hollow fangs that cannot be erected toward the front of their mouths, and cannot "stab" like a viper. They must actually bite the victim.


title: Snake

text: It has been suggested that all snakes may be venomous to a certain degree, with harmless snakes having weak venom and no fangs. According to this theory, most snakes that are labelled "nonvenomous" would be considered harmless because they either lack a venom delivery method or are incapable of delivering enough to endanger a human. The theory postulates that snakes may have evolved from a common lizard ancestor that was venomous, and also that venomous lizards like the gila monster, beaded lizard, monitor lizards, and the now-extinct mosasaurs, may have derived from this same common ancestor. They share this "venom clade" with various other saurian species.


title: Snake

text: There is a third family containing the "opistoglyphous" (rear-fanged) snakes (as well as the majority of other snake species):


title: Snake

text: Although a wide range of reproductive modes are used by snakes, all employ internal fertilization. This is accomplished by means of paired, forked hemipenes, which are stored, inverted, in the male's tail. The hemipenes are often grooved, hooked, or spined—designed to grip the walls of the female's cloaca. The clitoris of the female snake consists of two structures located between the cloaca and the scent glands.


title: Snake

text: Most species of snakes lay eggs which they abandon shortly after laying. However, a few species (such as the king cobra) construct nests and stay in the vicinity of the hatchlings after incubation. Most pythons coil around their egg-clutches and remain with them until they hatch. A female python will not leave the eggs, except to occasionally bask in the sun or drink water. She will even "shiver" to generate heat to incubate the eggs.


title: Snake

text: Some species of snake are ovoviviparous and retain the eggs within their bodies until they are almost ready to hatch. Several species of snake, such as the boa constrictor and green anaconda, are fully viviparous, nourishing their young through a placenta as well as a yolk sac; this is highly unusual among reptiles, and normally found in requiem sharks or placental mammals. Retention of eggs and live birth are most often associated with colder environments.


title: Snake

text: Sexual selection in snakes is demonstrated by the 3,000 species that each use different tactics in acquiring mates. Ritual combat between males for the females they want to mate with includes topping, a behavior exhibited by most viperids in which one male will twist around the vertically elevated fore body of its opponent and force it downward. It is common for neck-biting to occur while the snakes are entwined.


title: Snake

text: Parthenogenesis is a natural form of reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization. "Agkistrodon contortrix" (copperhead) and "Agkistrodon piscivorus" (cottonmouth) can reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis, meaning that they are capable of switching from a sexual mode of reproduction to an asexual mode. The most likely type of parthenogenesis to occur is automixis with terminal fusion, a process in which two terminal products from the same meiosis fuse to form a diploid zygote. This process leads to genome-wide homozygosity, expression of deleterious recessive alleles, and often to developmental abnormalities. Both captive-born and wild-born copperheads and cottonmouths appear to be capable of this form of parthenogenesis.


title: Snake

text: Reproduction in squamate reptiles is almost exclusively sexual. Males ordinarily have a ZZ pair of sex-determining chromosomes, and females a ZW pair. However, the Colombian Rainbow boa ("Epicrates maurus") can also reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis, resulting in production of WW female progeny. The WW females are likely produced by terminal automixis.


title: Snake

text: Snake embryonic development initially follows similar steps as any vertebrate embryo. The snake embryo begins as a zygote, undergoes rapid cell division, forms a germinal disc, also called a blastodisc, then undergoes gastrulation, neurulation, and organogenesis. Cell division and proliferation continues until an early snake embryo develops and the typical body shape of a snake can be observed. Multiple features differentiate the embryologic development of snakes from other vertebrates, two significant factors being the elongation of the body and the lack of limb development.


title: Snake

text: The elongation in snake body is accompanied by a significant increase in vertebra count (mice have 60 vertebrae, whereas snakes may have over 300). This increase in vertebrae is due to an increase in somites during embryogenesis, leading to an increased number of vertebrae which develop. Somites are formed at the presomitic mesoderm due to a set of oscillatory genes that direct the somitogenesis clock. The snake somitogenesis clock operates at a frequency 4 times that of a mouse (after correction for developmental time), creating more somites, and therefore creating more vertebrae. This difference in clock speed is believed to be caused by differences in "Lunatic fringe" gene expression, a gene involved in the somitogenesis clock.


title: Snake

text: There is ample literature focusing on the limb development/lack of development in snake embryos and the gene expression associated with the different stages. In basal snakes, such as the python, embryos in early development exhibit a hind limb bud that develops with some cartilage and a cartilaginous pelvic element, however this degenerates before hatching. This presence of vestigial development suggests that some snakes are still undergoing hind limb reduction before they are eliminated. There is no evidence in basal snakes of forelimb rudiments and no examples of snake forelimb bud initiation in embryo, so little is known regarding the loss of this trait. Recent studies suggests that hind limb reduction could be due to mutations in enhancers for the SSH gene, however other studies suggested that mutations within the Hox Genes or their enhancers could contribute to snake limblessness. Since multiple studies have found evidence suggesting different genes played a role in the loss of limbs in snakes, it is likely that multiple gene mutations had an additive effect leading to limb loss in snakes


title: Snake

text: In regions where winters are too cold for snakes to tolerate while remaining active, local species will enter a period of brumation. Unlike hibernation, in which the dormant mammals are actually asleep, brumating reptiles are awake but inactive. Individual snakes may brumate in burrows, under rock piles, or inside fallen trees, or large numbers of snakes may clump together in hibernacula.


title: Snake

text: All snakes are strictly carnivorous, preying on small animals including lizards, frogs, other snakes, small mammals, birds, eggs, fish, snails, worms, and insects. Snakes cannot bite or tear their food to pieces so must swallow their prey whole. The eating habits of a snake are largely influenced by body size; smaller snakes eat smaller prey. Juvenile pythons might start out feeding on lizards or mice and graduate to small deer or antelope as an adult, for example.


title: Snake

text: The snake's jaw is a complex structure. Contrary to the popular belief that snakes can dislocate their jaws, they have an extremely flexible lower jaw, the two halves of which are not rigidly attached, and numerous other joints in the skull, which allow the snake to open its mouth wide enough to swallow prey whole, even if it is larger in diameter than the snake itself. For example, the African egg-eating snake has flexible jaws adapted for eating eggs much larger than the diameter of its head. This snake has no teeth, but does have bony protrusions on the inside edge of its spine, which it uses to break the shell when eating eggs.


title: Snake

text: The majority of snakes eat a variety of prey animals, but there is some specialization in certain species. King cobras and the Australian bandy-bandy consume other snakes. Species of the family Pareidae have more teeth on the right side of their mouths than on the left, as they mostly prey on snails and the shells usually spiral clockwise.


title: Snake

text: Some snakes have a venomous bite, which they use to kill their prey before eating it. Other snakes kill their prey by constriction, while some swallow their prey when it is still alive.


title: Snake

text: After eating, snakes become dormant to allow the process of digestion to take place; this is an intense activity, especially after consumption of large prey. In species that feed only sporadically, the entire intestine enters a reduced state between meals to conserve energy. The digestive system is then 'up-regulated' to full capacity within 48 hours of prey consumption. Being ectothermic ("cold-blooded"), the surrounding temperature plays an important role in the digestion process. The ideal temperature for snakes to digest food is . There is a huge amount of metabolic energy involved in a snake's digestion, for example the surface body temperature of the South American rattlesnake ("Crotalus durissus") increases by as much as during the digestive process. If a snake is disturbed after having eaten recently, it will often regurgitate its prey to be able to escape the perceived threat. When undisturbed, the digestive process is highly efficient; the snake's digestive enzymes dissolve and absorb everything but the prey's hair (or feathers) and claws, which are excreted along with waste.


title: Snake

text: Hooding (expansion of the neck area) is a visual deterrent, mostly seen in cobras (elapids), and is primarily controlled by rib muscles. Hooding can be accompanied by spitting venom towards the threatening object, and producing a specialized sound; hissing. Studies on captive cobras showed that 13 to 22% of the body length is raised during hooding.


title: Snake

text: The lack of limbs does not impede the movement of snakes. They have developed several different modes of locomotion to deal with particular environments. Unlike the gaits of limbed animals, which form a continuum, each mode of snake locomotion is discrete and distinct from the others; transitions between modes are abrupt.


title: Snake

text: Lateral undulation is the sole mode of aquatic locomotion, and the most common mode of terrestrial locomotion. In this mode, the body of the snake alternately flexes to the left and right, resulting in a series of rearward-moving "waves". While this movement appears rapid, snakes have rarely been documented moving faster than two body-lengths per second, often much less. This mode of movement has the same net cost of transport (calories burned per meter moved) as running in lizards of the same mass.


title: Snake

text: Terrestrial lateral undulation is the most common mode of terrestrial locomotion for most snake species. In this mode, the posteriorly moving waves push against contact points in the environment, such as rocks, twigs, irregularities in the soil, etc. Each of these environmental objects, in turn, generates a reaction force directed forward and towards the midline of the snake, resulting in forward thrust while the lateral components cancel out. The speed of this movement depends upon the density of push-points in the environment, with a medium density of about 8 along the snake's length being ideal. The wave speed is precisely the same as the snake speed, and as a result, every point on the snake's body follows the path of the point ahead of it, allowing snakes to move through very dense vegetation and small openings.