Sentences with phrase «venom gland»

The type of insulin found in venom glands seems to match the prey of a given cone snail.

If the bombardier could evolve so complex a defense, it's not much of a stretch to imagine a dragon with venom glands filled with a gas that could ignite when released with just a bit of friction.

However, magnetic resonance imaging of a preserved Komodo head by the Fry team from the Museum of Natural History at Humboldt University in Berlin revealed an alternative explanation: huge venom glands opening to ducts at the front of the jaw.

Laita gave the example of the blue coral snake, which has an incredibly long venom gland, running nearly half the length of its body.

Venom glands take time to pump out venom, so it makes sense that they release another liquid first, says Philip Brownell, a scorpion biologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

A dragon could keep reservoirs of liquid ether tightly bound in airtight sacs, like venom glands in snakes, evolved from salivary glands.

After they developed their distinctive enlarged canines, one branch evolved venom glands and turned those teeth into grooved venom - delivery tools (above).

As venom glands don't fossilise, Benoit and his colleagues from at Wits University, in association with the Natural History Museum of London used cutting edge CT scanning and 3D imagery techniques to analyse the only two fossilised skulls of the Euchambersia ever found, and discovered stunning anatomical adaptions that are compatible with venom production.

The venom gland «is not a trivial structure, [but] a big bulge» on the lower jaw, says Fry, who compares previous ignorance of the Komodo dragon's venomous capabilities as akin to «missing the teeth on great white sharks and saying they are plankton eaters».

Most spiders kill with venom, but the uloborid spiders (such as Philoponella vicina) have lost their venom glands entirely.

The venom glands simply expressed the genes much more abundantly and steadily.

One of the orb weaver's silk genes is even expressed in the spider's venom gland.

Spitting spiders spew silky glue from their venom glands to pin down other, larger spiders for a killing bite to the leg.

Instead, Werren likened the functionality of these single - copy genes to «moonlighting» for extra cash, with the genes taking on a «night job» in the venom gland in addition to their «day job» elsewhere in the body.

«First, a wide, deep and circular fossa (a space in the skull) to accommodate a venom gland was present on the upper jaw and was connected to the canine and the mouth by a fine network of bony grooves and canals,» says Benoit.

They measured gene activity in the venom gland and in the so - called accessory gland, a poorly understood structure through which the venom passes before it leaves the cobra's mouth.

The venom gland itself relies on 20 gene families for its toxins.

When that didn't work, the researchers sometimes resorted to mild electric shock, using a nine - volt battery to make the venom glands contract and prompt the release of a droplet or two.

The search focused on the submaxillary salivary gland of rodents, which is similar in certain respects to the venom gland of snakes.

Seeking to understand how the cone snail springs its slow - motion trap, the Utah researchers searched the gene sequences of all of the proteins expressed in the venom gland of Conus geographus.

The insulin genes were more highly expressed in the venom gland than genes for some of the established venom toxins.

The new study, involving researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia and Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, has tested a new antibiotic candidate found in the venom gland of rattlesnakes.

In addition, recent research 3,4 suggests that the Komodos have a venom gland which is more important in disabling their prey.

The new genetic maps even suggest spiders may use silk in more ways than we yet fully know: some spidroins are made in the venom glands rather than the silk glands.

He adds, «Contrary to a common belief Harvestman do not have venom glands and are absolutely harmless.