snake

There is a fear that has always been with the human race. No, it’s not terrorism or even war, it’s….

snakes. Humans have always feared them. Now it’s been discovered that the ability to spot snakes may actually be in our genes. We’re afraid of sharks too, and it’s hard to feel feel sorry for them but we can certainly feel sorry for their prey and global warming has warmed up the waters around Antarctica to the extent that sharks have returned to those waters?after 40 million years.

It’s been that long since the waters around Antarctica have been warm enough to sustain populations of sharks and most fish, but they may return this century due to the effects of global warming. If they do, the impact on Antarctic ecology could be serious.
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We’re afraid of poisonous snakes, but most snakes have no venom and therefore are not dangerous. What can a non-poisonous snake do to ward off predators? One type of snake has developed its own version of the “poison ring” that certain Medieval ladies wore in case they wanted to pour a lethal substance into someone’s drink.

Herpetologists Deborah Hutchinson and Alan Savitzky discovered an Asian snake that eats poisonous toads, so it can use the toad toxin as a defensive weapon. It stores the toad poison in its neck glands, where it can be released during an attack. Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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Modern science thinks that we might have become human in the first place in order to get away from snakes. But once we realized that wasn’t possible, human beings began working hard to develop antidotes to snake venom. But it turns out we already have lots of anti-venom?right inside our cells. It can protect us as long as we do not receive a large, lethal dose.

Ker Than writes in LiveScience.com that a protein called carboxypeptidase A is released by a certain type of cell in our bodies when we’re bitten by a poisonous snake. This protein actually helps to break down the venom.

It’s clear that, one way or another, humans and snakes were destined to live together in a sort of unholy alliance.
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In evolutionary terms, humans may have gotten so smart because we needed to get away from poisonous snakes. This lends new credence to the Adam and Eve legend.

In LiveScience.com, Ker Than reports that anthropologist Lynne Isbell thinks that snakes and primates have a long history of trying to outsmart each other. Could the early writers of the Bible have intuited this?

Fossil and DNA evidence shows that snakes were already in the world 100 million years ago when the first mammals evolved. Primates are among the few animals with eyes that face forward, since most animals have eyes on the sides of their heads). Forward-facing eyes are what gives us the ability to see in 3-D, just as having two ears allows us to hear in stereo.
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