what is the difference between a snake and a serpent

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The terms snake and serpent are both used separately to describe an snake like animal but are there any differences between them?

Serpent

A serpent is is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context, signifying a snake that is to be as the bearer of some symbolic value. 

The serpent has played important roles in religious and cultural life of ancient Egypt, Canaan, Mesopotamia and Greece.  It is prevalent in religious teachings and books such as the Hebrew bible and the new testament. Many artefacts have been discovered depicting the serpent.

The serpent looks like a snake, but did not always look this way according to Genesis.  The physical appearance of the serpent was changed by God as a punishment for leading Adam and Eve astray. The serpent in the garden of Garden of Eden  is portrayed as a deceptive creature who promotes as good what God had forbidden, the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. 

Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden to tend to it and the serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree with claims that it would make them god like.  She in turn persuaded Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. God banished from Adam and Eve the Garden and punished the serpent for its role in their fall by being made to crawl on its belly in the dust.

The serpent is not always evil as in this Genesis story. In many religions the serpent is a benevolent creature and represents eternal life, fertility and good and evil.

Snake

A snake is a member of the reptile family belonging to the sub order Serpentes. They are elongated and covered in overlapping scales, and can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids, limbs, external ears, and vestiges of forelimbs. 

Like all reptiles snakes are cold blooded (ectothermic) and so their body temperature is affected fluctuating ambient temperatures and they often bask in the morning to warm up.   

There are nearly 3,000 species of snakes across the world ranging in size from 10 cm thread snake to huge 7 metre long pythons. They are all carnivorous, and track their prey by smelling the air with their forked tongues.  The fork in the tongue gives snakes a sort of directional sense of smell and taste simultaneously.  

Some snakes possess venom which they use to catch prey, and can be potent enough to kill even humans. Non venomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction. The part of the body in direct contact with the ground is very sensitive to vibration and so a snake can sense other animals approaching by detecting faint vibrations in the air and on the ground.

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