What is in a rattlesnake's tail that makes a sound?

So, what is in the tail of a rattlesnake, why can it make sound?

To find out what's inside, Daniel Markham, who created "What's Inside?" - a popular channel on YouTube dissected a rattlesnake's tail.

Daniel used a sharp knife to cut open the "buttons" that made up the tail lengthwise and was extremely surprised to discover that the tail was empty.

The tail of a rattlesnake actually consists of many loosely interlocking segments. These segments are made of the same hard protein that makes up human nails called keratin.

Oscillating waves run along the length of the bell's tail. The sound emitted from the rattlesnake's tail when shaking is due to the two layers of keratin at the end of the tail colliding with each other.

The snake shakes its tail so fast that it looks like a blur, unless you slow it down.

Rattlesnakes get a new tail each time they shed their skin. The new segment will grow inside the nearest segment. So when it falls off, the segments stay hooked together. The older the snake, the longer the belltail will be, unless it is broken.

Rattlesnakes can shake their tails back and forth 50-100 times per second, one of the fastest sustained muscle contractions in nature, equivalent to the flapping of a hummingbird's wings. They can maintain this vibration continuously for 2 hours.

Kareem Winters

Update 18 July 2024