"Twisted" is right --- snake vertebrae can't move in those vertically undulating axes --- they can bend in tight horizontal curves, but not very far off center vertically, which makes it easy to break their necks with a hoe or similar implement (that's a gardening tool, not a prostitute, although I suppose one could break a snakes neck with a skillfully and vigorously wielded prostitute ...) Just the other day, looking for a Thanksgiving dinner serving bowl, I considered using what's normally displayed here as a piece of art, a bowl decorated with an anatomically incorrect Loch Ness Monster style rattlesnake, thrown by the Tucson potter Dee Cox, whose knowledge of slips and glazes manifestly exceeds her concern for correct depictions of local fauna.