The yellow rat snake that may enjoy some human contact.

[MDT]

O.M.G........
(yes, I'm back in against my better judgement).......

Seriously?!?!?!?!? Jarich, dude I really respect you, however, if Cory is gonna put forth the theory that a snake likes a little tickle every now and then, he should be able to back that theory up with data. Yes, I said that the limbic system was lacking in reptiles. I figured that as a group of reptile enthusiasts, we'd all kinda know that. If not, I figured that with minimal digging we could all access that readily available information about reptilian brain development in comparison to mammalian brain development. Again, my data is about 100 yrs of published neuroanatomy. From my personal dissection and study of about 6 brains from the phyllum Chordata to my post graduate training. I'm stating fact that a reptiles brain is peanuts compared to ours. Can I say definitively that a reptile can absolutely, unequivocally not dig a really good massage? No, but I can say that evidence points away from that. And further, the one postulating something different is the one who should be able to sway the skeptics. Even ZooNanny's link to the paper confirmed this:

As indicated in Table 1, many of the pallial differences between reptiles and birds are more those of degree in the development of areas than ones involving major shifts of connections. The Wulst and dorsal ventricular ridge regions of birds are substantially expanded in comparison with the corresponding regions in reptiles. This difference is reflected in the jump in brain-body ratios between reptiles and birds (Jerison, 2001; Nieuwenhuys et al., 1998). The brain-body ratios of amphibians are even less than those in reptiles (Jerison, 2001), and as discussed above, their forebrains lack the thalamopallial circuitry of amniote brains. Although consciousness, even of a higher level, cannot be ruled out in reptiles or amphibians, if such thalamopallial circuitry is crucial to its generation in birds and mammals, it is possible that reptiles have consciousness to a substantially lesser degree, and amphibians may or may not have alternate neural systems to support it.

This is ONE paper on the subject...and trust me, there are 1000's more out there on this same subject. I can't say conclusively that my JCP doesn't like it when I rub her tummy, but I can darn sure make an educated guess that until the data supports that supposition, I shouldn't going around saying that she does and not expect to be challenged on it...