Monash University
New research is using high-resolution 3D scanning to reveal patterns in the design of snake fangs, showing that these needle-like teeth are shaped to match the snake’s preferred prey.
Venomous snakes are notorious for their deadly needle-like fangs. These unusual teeth have a tunnel on the inside that runs down the entire length, just like a medical syringe. The venom is thus truly injected when snakes bite into their victims.
But before this venom can be delivered, these fangs first have to puncture their prey. This requires them to be sharp, but not so pointed that they become fragile and break when the tip hits the surface of their food. This is important because not all foods are the same: while rats and mice have soft skin, lizards have scales, and crabs have hard shells.
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 the same? Or are their fangs differently shaped depending on what they eat, as we find in other animal groups?
To uncover the answer, we examined the three-dimensional shape of snake fangs in 81 species and found that fangs have indeed evolved to suit the snake’s preferred prey, from hard-shelled crabs to furry mammals. Our results are published in the journal Evolution.