Tagged: snakes

How snake fangs evolved to perfectly fit their food - Hot off the press

Guest Author • May 14, 2021 •

• evolution,
• snakes

Silke Cleuren, Monash University; Alistair Evans, Monash University, and David Hocking, Monash University   Few structures in nature inspire more fear and fascination than the fangs of venomous snakes. These needle-like teeth are used by snakes to pierce their prey and inject deadly venom. With more than 3000 species of snake inhabiting our world, we wondered: are all their fangs … Read More

Snakeflu?! An intriguing source suggested for new Chinese coronavirus - Infectious Thoughts

Siouxsie Wiles • Jan 23, 2020 •

• amino acid,
• bats,
• China,
• codon,
• coronavirus,
• DNA,
• Journal of Medical Virology,
• Kristian Andersen,
• MERS,
• open access,
• Pneumonia,
• SARS,
• snakes,
• virus,
• Wuhan

Update 27/01/2020: Soon after the “snakeflu” paper was released, scientists took to social media expressing doubts, raising the fact that it’s pretty rare for the codon usage of a virus to closely match its reservoir host. Others criticised the way the authors prepared their codon usage tables. Kristian Andersen made some better codon usage tables and then calculated … Read More