Special Episode: Snake Venom Evolution
This Podcast Will Kill You
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The Evolution of Venom Spitting in Cobras
venom spittings a really interesting one, because in a retort already about why venoms have olved in snakes and its four predatory purposes. There doesn't seem to be much evidence that venom composition is evolving secondarily for defense. But there's actually very little evidence that the composition of venom is evolving in response to the use f that venom defensively, except with spitting cobras. This is the exception. Always in biology, there are exceptions. And indeed, we know that the timing of the origin of a venom spitting in africa, in african cobras, about 15 million years ago, correlates quite nicely fro when our ancestors diverged from chimpanzees. So it may well be
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