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Flying snakes - the reptiles that are able to fling themselves from trees gliding through the air, have been a subject of constant research. However, their phenomenon of staying aloft is now being explained by scientists. 

According to scientists, the serpents radically change their body shape to generate the required aerodynamic forces to stay aloft. 

"The snake is definitely not an intuitive glider. When you look at it, you say: 'that thing should not be able to glide'. And in its normal body configuration that is probably true.

"But when it enters the air, when it takes off and jumps and leaps from a branch, it massively transforms its body," said Professor Jake Socha, from Virginia Tech in the US, who carried out the study, according to BBC. 

There are five known species of flying species and all belong to the genus Chrysopelea. 

 "As it jumps, it flattens out from just behind the head to where the tail starts. What it is doing is taking its ribs and rotating them forwards toward the head and upwards toward the spine.And this makes it much wider - so it doubles in width - and it forms this unique cross-sectional shape," said Prof Socha. 

Researchers found that the body of the flying snakes changed to one that was more squashed and concave at the bottom from the round cross-section. 

To understand better, researchers created a plastic copy of the snake's cross-section and placed it in a tank of flowing water. 

"The water flowed over it and we measured the forces on the model and we also visualised the flow movement in the water using lasers and high-speed cameras," explained Prof Socha to BBC.

Researchers believe their findings can contribute to robotics leading to robots that can crawl climb and glide. 

The findings are published in the published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.