Malagasy Leaf-Nosed Snakes

The vast majority of Madagascar’s snakes are unique to the island, but few are so strange to the eye as Malagasy leaf-nosed snakes. These snakes, which like to hang from branches high in the trees, have bizarre nasal appendages protruding from their faces.
Leaf-nosed snakes are unusually sexually dimorphic for snakes; females can be clearly identified because their nasal protrusions are more elaborate and serrated, while the males have longer, pointier appendages. These protrusions are present from birth, so they aren’t thought to be used for sexual signaling.

 Instead, it is believed they are used for camouflage purposes, since the snakes have a habit of ambushing predators. When the snakes lie still, their nasal appendages resemble leaves or the seed pods of some native Madagascan plants, meaning that the arboreal lizards they prey on don’t see them until it’s too late.