Scientists discover a secret weapon that allows the snake to digest bones

The reputable snake for eating habits. After suffocation of their prey with their bodies, these large snakes swallow the whole animal. Now, the researchers threw a new light on the cellular mechanisms that allow them to digest the entire skeletons.

The study, presented on July 9 at the annual conference of the Experimental Biology Association in Belgium Published In the experimental biology magazine, investigating intestinal cells of the Burmese snake. Adult males can grow to be 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 meters), and their impressive size allows them to do so Nourish A wide range of mammals and birds, including deer and crocodiles. Unlike other meat -eating animals that only eat meat, snakes depend on the skeletons of animals as a source of calcium. The absorption of all the calcium available from the skeleton, however, can lead to many of these nutrients that enter the snake blood course. Hypercalmia is called, it can be Lead To heart disease, high blood pressure, bone defects and kidney failure in reptiles.

“We wanted to determine how (the snake) managed to address this great absorption of calcium and reduce it,” said Jihan Herhee Lennut, the main author and professor at the University of Montaller, in A. statement.

To this end, Linot and his colleagues feed the snake, one of three different diets: natural mice, great mice, or mice without enriched bone with calcium carbonate to match the levels of natural calcium. One group of snakes did not receive any of these meals and instead silent for three weeks to provide a basic line. Three to six days after feeding, the researchers carried out theology and supervised the snakes to extract the small intestine.

Then they analyzed intestinal cells, or intestinal lining cells, from the snake using optical and electronic microscopes, as well as measurements of calcium and hormones. This revealed an unprecedented type of cell that produces large particles made of calcium, phosphorous and iron. These particles are the structures that you call Lignot “Croooi”.

“The morphological analysis of the Bethon’s epithelium on specific particles I have not seen before in other vertebrates,” said Lignot. He and his colleagues found these particles inside an internal “basement” – a small pocket or a cavity – from specialized cells that differ from traditional intestinal cells. He added: “In contrast to the intestinal cells for regular absorption, these cells are very narrow, and they have a short microfili (fingers -like membrane bumps), and they have a cordial fold that form a basement.”

The three different diets that the snake ate allowed researchers to assess the function of these unique cells. In snakes that ate bone prey, intestinal cells did not produce calcium molecules and phosphorous rich. In those that ate either whole rodents or calcium -completing rodents, however, cells of cells are full of large particles of calcium, phosphorus and iron. This indicates that these cells play an important role in breaking the bones of Bithon. Researchers have not found any bones in snake stools, which confirms that all skeletons were completely digested and dissolved inside their bodies.

Although it was first identified in the Burmese snake, this type of new cell is not unique to them. Since this initial discovery, researchers have found these cells specialized in bone digestion in other types of snake, boas, and Gila Monster, a type of original toxic lizard in the southwest of the United States and Mexico.

The results seem to indicate a system of mineral regulation in the digestive system of reptiles. However, this mechanism can extend to other types of meat -eating animals that eat bones as well, such as sharks and other marine predators, water mammals, or neighboring such as the bearded eagle, according to what he mentioned to Jannout. He told Gizmodo that he hopes this work will inspire other researchers to search for these newly discovered cells in the animal kingdom.