Researchers in NUI Galway have shown, for the first time, that smaller species of scorpions, with smaller pincers, have more potent venoms compared to larger species with robust claws.
Plants & Animals
Apr 21, 2022
0
4
The deadly venom of a poisonous sea snail could hold the key to developing new medicines including more effective, less addictive forms of pain relief.
Biochemistry
Mar 30, 2022
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11
Despite their reputation as living fossils, scorpions have remained evolutionarily nimble—especially in developing venom to fend off the rise of mammal predators. A new genetic analysis of scorpions' toxin-making reveals ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 28, 2022
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180
Scientists already know that the venom of cone snails, which prowl the ocean floor for a fish dinner, contains compounds that can be adapted as pharmaceuticals to treat chronic pain, diabetes and other human maladies. But ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 23, 2022
0
533
For millions of people with diabetes, insulin is essential medicine. But for some ocean-dwelling predators, insulin is a weapon. With a burst of venom, a fish-hunting cone snail can drop the blood sugar of its prey so precipitously ...
Biochemistry
Mar 15, 2022
0
359
Australian bull ants have evolved a venom molecule perfectly tuned to target one of their predators—the echidna—that also could have implications for people with long-term pain, University of Queensland researchers say.
Evolution
Mar 3, 2022
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16
To eat or get eaten. It describes the evolutionary race of snakes versus the mammals and birds that prey on these snakes. Muzaffar Ali Khan devoted his Ph.D. to investigating the molecular mechanisms play of the evolutionary ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 15, 2022
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23
New research led by the University of Adelaide has found the first tangible evidence that the ancestors of some of Australia's most venomous snakes arrived by sea rather than by land—the dispersal route of most other Australian ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 11, 2022
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2007
Australia has a global reputation as a land full of danger, where seemingly everything is out to kill you. Crocodiles lurk in estuaries, large spiders hide in bathrooms, and we share our suburbs with some of the world's most ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 7, 2022
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64
QUT Ph.D. researcher Lauren Ashwood has studied sea anemones' venom makeup extensively, in particular, Telmatactis stephensoni a reef-based sea anemone that can grow from 8 to 10 cm.
Ecology
Feb 4, 2022
0
1007
