You’ve gotta feel for the original ancestor, millions of years ago, that set in motion the evolution of the Shovel-Nosed Snake. Lets call him Frank. Frank was just a regular snake that would wake up every day and go hang out with his other snake friends. They’d slither about on the surface, maybe climb the odd tree, and just do normal snake stuff.

But Frank felt a restlessness that he couldn’t explain. Ennui, melancholy, weltschmerz – these were the emotions that defined his existence. Try as he might, he couldn’t be like the other snakes. Their lives felt almost scripted, like they were simply playing the role of a snake, endlessly taking part in the monotonous rat race.

And even though those rats were tasty whenever Frank managed to catch one, the joy was always fleeting, and was quickly replaced with the desire to catch an even bigger, tastier rat.

Frank knew this wasn’t the life for him, but he was too scared to admit to the other snakes his true passion. He would be ridiculed, or worse. That wasn’t the kind of thing that snakes did. It was weird. It was dirty. It was… unnatural.

But Frank knew what his heart desired. He knew he couldn’t hold it back any longer. Frank wanted to go where no snake had gone before.

Frank wanted to dig.

Frank felt at home underground. He loved the feeling of the dirt between his scales. He adored the safe, cool environment that you could find just beneath the surface.

But there was just one problem…

Frank was smooth. Not in the way that attracted lady snakes, they all thought he was a bit weird. No, Frank was smooth in a literal sense. And that meant that he had serious trouble pursuing his formidable desire to dig.

It would take him hours to dig even the smallest hole, and he would be left so tired at the end that he would question if it had even been worth the effort.

And then, as if his challenges weren’t hard enough, on top of everything, there was Gabriela.

Gabriela was the most beautiful snake Frank had ever seen. She had a wedge-shaped nose that made her stand out from the other snakes – and Frank thought she was the bee’s knees, the lemur’s femurs, the adder’s bladder!

One morning, Frank finally worked up the courage to ask Gabriela out. He spotted her across a small clearing and cautiously approached. If he’d had legs, they would have been quivering.

“Um, hi, uh, Gabriela. I was wondering if, ya know, maybe, you’d like to go for a slither with me some time?”

Gabriela’s jaw dropped. A look of horror came over her face.

It took Frank several moments of panic to realise that Gabriela hadn’t been paying any attention to what he had said – she was staring straight past him, eyes fixed on the horizon in terror.

Frank turned around to see huge plumes of smoke rising skyward, and beneath them, a bushfire raging towards them. He tried to scream, but then remembered that he’s a snake and snakes can’t scream.

“Gabriela, I think I can save us. This plan is going to sound crazy, but I need you to trust me…”

Gabriela stared back blankly. What plan could he possibly have that could save them? She had already resigned herself to the fact that there was no escape. So she decided she may as well hear him out.

“Gabriela, you need to help me dig,” Frank said with a pang of desperation in his voice.

“Are you out of your mind? I’m not going to spend my last moments on Earth digging, Frank!”

“It’s our only hope Gabriela. Please. You’ve got to try.”

Gabriela thought hard. Perhaps there was a chance the plan would work. And realistically, what other choice did she have? She took one last look at Frank, and began to dig.

Gabriela was a pro. It was like she’d been digging all her life. Her wedge-shaped nose allowed her to break through the soil with remarkable speed. She was able to dig in two minutes a hole that would take two hours for Frank.

In the blink of an eye, Gabriela had dug a burrow, well below the surface, that could fit both her and Frank. They held each other close as they heard the bushfire roar overhead, neither knowing how long they would have to endure the steadily increasing heat. But it was in that fearful embrace, that they fell in love.

A few hours later they emerged, unscathed – Gabriela’s heroics and Frank’s ingenuity had saved their lives.

Over time, they built a family, and set the evolutionary wheels in motion for what would become a new kind of snake. Each of their children had Gabriela’s unique nose, and Frank’s extraordinary passion for digging.

The world was getting its first glimpse of the Shovel-Nosed Snake.

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Northern Shovel-Nosed Snake (Brachyurophis roperi), Kakadu National Park, Australia