November 26, 2005
the evolution of venom
Carl Zimmer writes about venom and the origin of snakes:
"Back in February I discovered the remarkable work of Australian biologist Bryan Grieg Fry , who has been tracing the evolution of venom. As I wrote in the New York Times, he searched the genomes of snakes for venom genes. He discovered that even non-venomous snakes produce venom. By drawing an evolutionary tree of the venom genes, Fry showed that the common ancestor of living snakes had several kinds of venom, which had evolved through accidental "borrowing" of proteins produced in other parts of the body. Later, these genes duplicated to create a sophisticated cocktail of venoms--a cocktail that varied from one lineage of snakes to another."
More Here
Posted by Ruth kikin-Gil at 05:55 PM | Permalink
Comments
Isn't it amazing that as deadly potent as most snake venoms are, man has not used it to make weapons of destruction against man and other animals? Why not a "venom gun"? Let us all be thankful for birds of prey, owls, hawks, eagles, buzzards, etc., and cats, all of which control the snake population. A few years ago I read of a brown snake in Australia which has no known natural predator, and those snake were everywhere, from toilet bowls to high voltage powerlines.
And remember, "'tis not yours to wonder why, only but to do and die". Mark Twain must be laughing in his grave, since however powerful snake venom is, only a single victim is used at meal time in the reptile kingdom. And it is still amazing to observe a king snake "win" in a confrontation with a rattlesnake. But if it were not for snakes, we would be overrun by rats and mice. I wonder why.... Oh, that's right, it all "explained" by evolution.
Posted by: Winfield J. Abbe | Nov 26, 2005 10:40:47 PM
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