The
mental scale, or mental, in
snakes and other
Squamata refers to the median
Snake scales on the tip of the lower jaw.
[Wright AH, (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). .] It is a triangular scale that corresponds to the
Rostral scale of the upper jaw.
[, , (2003). True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company. 359 pp. .] 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
See also
