When I was in Australia they always used to seem strangely proud of having ten of the world’s thirteen most poisonous snakes, or something. They used to claim one of the Taipans was the most poisonous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipan
– though like Pete I’ve a sneaking regard for the Black Mamba.
A lot of venomous snakes and spiders (and poisonous fish and sea-snails) produce neurotoxic substances in their venom, like Pete says. This tends to paralyse the prey (so it can’t run away) and also kill it quickly, good news for snagging a quick dinner. One really interesting thing is whether the poisonous animal has to be immune to its own venom.
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Austin commented on :
When I was in Australia they always used to seem strangely proud of having ten of the world’s thirteen most poisonous snakes, or something. They used to claim one of the Taipans was the most poisonous:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipan
– though like Pete I’ve a sneaking regard for the Black Mamba.
A lot of venomous snakes and spiders (and poisonous fish and sea-snails) produce neurotoxic substances in their venom, like Pete says. This tends to paralyse the prey (so it can’t run away) and also kill it quickly, good news for snagging a quick dinner. One really interesting thing is whether the poisonous animal has to be immune to its own venom.