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Hot Size \ Toxicity relationship
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by IanG on July 1, 2002
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Hi, another bone question.
I should mabye change my name to "Bone questioner, but Interested"
Is there any relationshiop to the size and the toxicity of particular specimens.
I believe i seen a tv program regarding taipans {i think} and how there venom and tactis for hunting developed due to the ferocity of there prey.
If so, how come Mambas and Kings grow so large..
cheers
IanG
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RE: Hot Size \ Toxicity relationship
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by TAIPAN78 on July 2, 2002
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My personal opionion is that Blks and Kings evoloved their size, posibly to be more formidable to any advesary they may come across. If ya think about it, both sp occur in regions dominated by large animals, pirticulary the polylepis and if your big and scarry, you have less of a chance to be squashed, beaten, eaten etc. I dont know how accurate this asumption is but both have probally the higest rearing, most formindable defense stance I have ever seen and this would definately be a very good way to scare off an Elaphant, water buffalo, Wildabeast, Rhino etc... BTW, these above mentioned reasons may also be why these 2 sp evolved such highly toxic venom. O.hannah, drop for drop isnt all that impresive for a Elapid but the quanities which they produce are mind boggleing and a full on bite from one would definately be over kill, several times! The polylepis on the other hand have one of the more powerfull snake venoms studied and a mere 2 drops is said to be enough to take down an adult. With a venom yeild somewhere around the 200 mg mark per bite, you can imgaine how many times over a adlut can kill ya.
Welp, just some ideas of mine.
Hope this helps though im not quite sure where your question was going.
All the best,
Jeremy
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RE: Hot Size \ Toxicity relationship
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by Naja_oxiana on July 2, 2002
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Is there a relationship between size and toxicity? No, not really....Sure, there are plenty of big, venomous snakes. Jeremy mentioned the Black Mamba and the King Cobra, you mentioned the Taipan....Of course, these are all elapids. Three of these four snakes are devistatingly powerful as well. One makes up for a weaker venom by having the highest venom yield of any snake, iirc. A bit of a challenge to you on this subject...Find me the LD50s for Micrurus fulvius, Crotalus Atrox and Lachesis muta; Acanthophis preolongus, Bitis gabonica and Protobothrops (Trim.) flavoviridis.
Doing this, of course, might suggest that smaller snakes would have more toxic venoms. But this is not nessesarily true either. Why do some snakes have more toxic venoms? Aside from the standard answers of efficiancy in taking down prey, I think that some snakes evolved the "overkill" venoms to build up a reputation in the animal kingdom, though I could not begin to prove this right now.
Cheers
Roger
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