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Hundreds of millions of years ago when the ancestors of terrestrial animals crawled out of the seas to pristine beaches, they came pretty quickly to a simple conclusion: in order to survive, you need to urgently develop new ways to catch prey. Scientists have found that in order to turn protein essential to sustain life organism, into a potent poison, just a mutation is enough one gene. For example, scorpions use protein not only as an important part of the immune system, but also as a substance that carries death. Scorpio poison is in the tail. And although only 25 species scorpions from the 1700 available when attacking a person can him kill, for many representatives of the animal world they carry mortal danger. Dr. Zhu and colleagues isolated proteins scorpions, the so-called defensins – compounds intended to fight bacteria. These protein derivatives are found in many plants and animals. Having delved into the study of these substances, scientists have concluded that to convert defensin from harmless Amino acids to poison require a mutation of just one gene. Evolutionary theory claims that, having arisen on land, scorpions gradually changed their “registration” to the ocean, where they lived for a very long time and evolved. However, about 400 million years ago, this species again I chose land for living. The appearance of scorpions poison. Dr. Zhu believes the conversion of defensin to the toxin was one of the consequences of the adaptation of these animals to downsizing. Relatively small animals what became scorpions, it has become much more difficult to catch prey, as a result of which evolution has developed new hunting and defense mechanisms for them. Study of ancient fossils discovered on the coast Australia, confirmed the fact that during the era of stay in the marine among the ancestors of scorpions were quite large animals. They had only one effective way of hunting is to use to attack and retention of powerful powerful, like huge limb tweezers. The tail of the ancestors of modern scorpions was very small and served rather for traffic control. Their land descendants the proportions are directly opposite – a large tail and small front claws. It turns out that in the process of evolution scorpions are enough profitably exchanged their mechanical protective equipment for ability bring death “at the tip of the tail.” The same applies to others. poisonous animals, including snakes, which evolved from poisonous lizards. They, like scorpions (in process of simple gene mutation), have gained a powerful means of protection and weapons for attack. But, for example, large snakes – boas and pythons – in the process of evolution, on the contrary, they lost their poisonous properties. This was due to the ability to attack using for this is not poison, but its powerful body, which is capable not only of to strangle large prey, but also to crush all of it with its “arms” bones. To get food, representatives of snakes such as cobras, in an elegant set chemical toxins and an extremely effective delivery method poison itself at the tips of the fangs. Once in the blood, cobra venom blocks the nervous system of the victim, and thereby suppresses the process breathing. And some snakes that live in Australia do produce poison, which coagulates the blood of the victim, forming in it millions of blood clots. The poison of some jellyfish causes the victim such unbearable pain that the body simply can not withstand shock and later dies for several minutes. Other poisonous animals such as stingray or stone fish, use their poison for defense, to keep predators at a safe distance.
Australia Snakes Evolution
