Mental scale

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

title: "Mental scale" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["snake-scales"] topic_path: "general/snake-scales" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_scale" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/AB047_Scales_on_a_snakes_head.jpg" caption="Scales on a snake's head"] ::

The mental scale, or mental, in snakes and other scaled reptiles refers to the median plate on the tip of the lower jaw. It is a triangular scale that corresponds to the rostral of the upper jaw. The reference to the term 'mental' comes from the mental nerve which addresses the chin and lower jaw in animals. In snakes, the shape and size of this scale is sometimes one of the characteristics used to differentiate species from one another.

Related scales

References

References

  1. [[Albert Hazen Wright. Wright AH]], [[species:Anna Allen Wright. Wright AA]] (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca & London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press. (7th printing, 1985). 1,105 pp. (in two volumes). {{ISBN. 0-8014-0463-0.
  2. [[species:David Mallow. Mallow D]], [[species:David Ludwig. Ludwig D]], [[species:Göran Nilson. Nilson G]] (2003). ''True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers''. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company. 359 pp. {{ISBN. 0-89464-877-2.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

snake-scales