Why are snake and spider venoms so powerful when their normal victims are so small?
In: 18
The true answer is that we don’t know why. There’s just several theories. Those include:
1. Speed to subdue
2. Evolutionary arms race
3. Evolutionary nuclear bomb (mutation by chance caused very powerful venom and nature has not caused it to be weaker)
4. Conservation of limited resources
I personally think #4 is a strong contender. A common trait of non-venomous snakes is that they are constrictors. Killing by constricting is extremely resource intensive in terms of energy expended. The snakes that developed venom probably did so because it was a more efficient use of limited energy resources (uses fewer calories to create, expends few calories to deploy, yields high calorie reward at low failure rate). So it makes sense to me that such powerful venom would just be a very effective way of conserving energy.
Latest Answers