Tackling an old Irish Legend

   As the old Irish legend goes St. Patrick chased all of the snakes into the sea using his staff and banished them from Ireland forever.  In the spirit  of St. Patrick's Day we will take a look into the actual reason as to why there are no snakes in Ireland.  Early snakes evolved about 100 million years ago and were small, slender and lived on the southern supercontinent Gondwanaland which consisted of some of the continents we know today such as South America, Australia, India, Africa and Antarctica.   Ireland wasn't even an island at this time.  At about 25 million years ago the snakes we know of today evolved.  Ireland had never been connected to the supercontinent.  Aside from being surrounded by water, Ireland's terrain is rocky and the weather is too cold year round, making the environment unpleasant for the cold blooded creatures.