section_path: Nonhuman animal sensation and perception/Non-human analogues/Infrared sensing
section_name: Infrared sensing
paragraph_text: Infrared sensing
  
  The ability to sense infrared thermal radiation evolved independently in various families of snakes. Essentially, it allows these reptiles to "see" radiant heat at wavelengths between 5 and 30 μm to a degree of accuracy such that a blind rattlesnake can target vulnerable body parts of the prey at which it strikes. It was previously thought that the organs evolved primarily as prey detectors, but it is now believed that it may also be used in thermoregulatory decision making. The facial pit underwent parallel evolution in pitvipers and some boas and pythons, having evolved once in pitvipers and multiple times in boas and pythons. The electrophysiology of the structure is similar between the two lineages, but they differ in gross structural anatomy. Most superficially, pitvipers possess one large pit organ on either side of the head, between the eye and the nostril (Loreal pit), while boas and pythons have three or more comparatively smaller pits lining the upper and sometimes the lower lip, in or between the scales. Those of the pitvipers are the more advanced, having a suspended sensory membrane as opposed to a simple pit structure. Within the family Viperidae, the pit organ is seen only in the subfamily Crotalinae: the pitvipers. The organ is used extensively to detect and target endothermic prey such as rodents and birds, and it was previously assumed that the organ evolved specifically for that purpose. However, recent evidence shows that the pit organ may also be used for thermoregulation. According to Krochmal et al., pitvipers can use their pits for thermoregulatory decision-making while true vipers (vipers who do not contain heat-sensing pits) cannot.
  
  In spite of its detection of IR light, the pits' IR detection mechanism is not similar to photoreceptors – while photoreceptors detect light via photochemical reactions, the protein in the pits of snakes is in fact a temperature-sensitive ion channel. It senses infrared signals through a mechanism involving warming of the pit organ, rather than a chemical reaction to light. This is consistent with the thin pit membrane, which allows incoming IR radiation to quickly and precisely warm a given ion channel and trigger a nerve impulse, as well as vascularize the pit membrane in order to rapidly cool the ion channel back to its original "resting" or "inactive" temperature.