Evolution’s Most Effective Killer: Snake Venom

It’s a tremendously deadly weapon, refined over the course of more than 100 million years. It kills tens of thousands of people every year. And thanks to new research, it may soon be the basis for cures that save the lives of many more.
Snake Venom: Snake venom kills tens of thousands of people every year, but new research is turning it into cures that may save the lives of many more Photo by Joe McDonald/Corbis/Scanpix pix

As predators, snakes are missing a few key attributes. They have no legs to chase down their prey, no paws to knock down quarry, and no claws to hold their victims. But none of these deficiencies matters much, because evolution has handed snakes the ultimate weapon: venom. With it, the several hundred types of venomous snakes can kill or debilitate before their victims escape.

Their venom has given snakes the ability to be small yet effective hunters, and they have spread to fill every ecological niche—as long as the environment is warm enough for them to stay in motion. Snakes live everywhere from treetops to the forest floor, in deserts and in the oceans.

In general, scientists agree on how snakes’ venom glands evolved, but that’s not the case for the poisons themselves. Some scientists think that venom is composed of modified proteins from the snakes’ spit that already functioned to break down and digest the prey. Some also believe that the ability to produce poison has evolved independently among the different species of snakes.

But Australian researcher Bryan Fry, one of the world’s leading experts on venomous snakes, has another theory. He has discovered, with the help of DNA analysis, that the vast majority of the proteins and enzymes found in venoms closely resemble substances found in other parts of the snakes’ bodies—substances, for example, that have a function in the liver, or in the digestive organs or some other system. The genes that control the production of these substances in other organs somehow became activated in the salivary glands, where they produce substances that, once modified and refined, are able to help kill the snakes’ prey in an increasingly effective manner.

Fry also believes that this ability arose a single time, well over 100 million years ago, in one of the earliest ancestors of modern snakes. It then spread to all snakes, but it was only highly developed and refined among the three taxonomic families that we now consider poisonous.
Venom, in other words, is older than snakes themselves.

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18 Comments

Comments

Axi27

from lutz, FL

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Im not sure about this but hasn't research like this been going on for a long time?

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b00n3s
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yes, it has. considering that "The first medically active substance isolated from a snake’s venom came from a Brazilian pit viper, Bothrops jararaca, in 1949." and if it takes a long time just isolate specific proteins and enzymes from the venom, it must of been going on from at least 1925.

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cwbabcock
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Isn't evolution clever? Why don't all snakes have venom? How was it decided one group of snakes would have venom and another would not? How did the ability to have venom "spread" from snake to snake? This is junk science because the foundational premise is wrong. Evolution is a lie.

1 out of 5 people found this comment helpful
ndakotan

from Minot, ND

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I thought junk science was making statements without backing them up scientifically or backing them up with bs. I can see why you would think it unbelievable that evolution is so fantastic and "evolved", but is it more likely that some all powerful being created us 8000 years ago for entertainment and then left us to screw the world up? If that is the theory you prefer, go with it. Pretty smart of him to put fossils and bones in the ground to throw us off the scent.

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cwbabcock
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Answer my questions. Don't just come up with your anit God rhetoric. Where did the poison come from? How did the first poisonous snake become poisonsous? Why aren't all snakes poisonous then? The fossils and bones in the ground that you refer to do not prove the theory of evolution. Examine the evidence. Darwin's theory does not hold up.

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ttu103
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Do you even know what evolution is? You're just asking stupid questions to get into a pointless debate. Get your head out of the Bible and look up some facts first, junior. You're not ready for a debate yet. Here's some clues: "random mutations" and "natural selection."

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Hurtzmyhead
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Dude u dont know what u are talking about how can an explosion large enough to create other elements come outa nowhere outa nothing?

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ricwoodard
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What if the Bible was in fact right and "natural selection" and "random mutations" also had a role in the evolving different species along the way

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skillz50
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umm correct me if im wrong but i thought the proper term is venemous..

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Dubhghall
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cwbabcock, it is quite clear that your understanding of Science in general is horribly flawed. At first I thought "this must be a troll post." But then I noticed that "Gawd" has been invoked and therefore logic and reason no longer had a place in this argument.

And whats this about anti-gawd rhetoric? By the very nature of your argument you are anti-god in every way. Who is to say that your view of creation is the correct one? Because it says so in a Bible that was written by Jewish priests 2000 years ago (merely as guide to living and not meant to be taken literally)? What makes that any more relevant than, say, Scandinavian folklore and Norse Mythology? Because a charismatic schizophrenic said he was born of GAWD?

Arnold Glagow once said "The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion" and boy do you prove him right. But it's ok, I was once like that too. But then I got an education :)

And if it was a troll post, I commend you - you successfully trolled!

0 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
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