eli5: Why do some tiny animals contain enough venom to kill thousands of humans, isn’t that just overkill?
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Potent venoms are usually the result of an evolutionary arms race between the predator and the prey.
A venom’s primary purpose in most animals is to incapacitate prey. This applies an evolutionary pressure on prey animals to become more resistant to said venom, as being able to survive even just a single dose is often enough to escape and go on to mate. This in turn applies an evolutionary pressure on the predator to possess a more potent venom, as those with more potent venoms will end up being more successful at hunting.
Repeat this evolutionary back and forth over hundreds of millions of years, and you end up with a single dose of venom capable of bringing down elephants a hundred times over.
As for why humans or other large animals don’t develop these same tolerances, well when’s the last time you saw a venomous snake or spider actively hunt down a human or an elephant?
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