Together with colleagues from Canada, Assistant Professor Dr Suat Özbek and Prof. Dr Thomas Holstein have discovered that the two organisms developed similar miniature weapons for prey capture over the course of their evolution, although they share no common genetic basis. (sciencedaily.com)
«It's a very deliberate and selective form of prey capture.» (sciencedaily.com)
The diversification of these toxins correlates directly with their functional importance in prey capture, for example the most pathogenic king cobra toxin family have undergone massive expansion, while, in contrast, venom proteins with less important functions do not participate in the evolutionary arms race occurring between snakes and their prey. (sciencedaily.com)