Why are Australian snakes so toxic?

[Eskimo Joe]

Hi there folks...
It's a well known fact that most Australian snakes are very toxic, and most of the worlds most toxic snakes are found here. Why is this, why are they so much more toxic than snakes in other parts of the world? Can someone give me a answer on this from a biogeographical and evolutionary view...

[orbsycli]

It's funny because I asked this in a confession booth once at a completely random (which isn't really random at all) church in Portland, Maine.

"Father, Why are the snakes in Austrailia so poisonous?"

"My son, god deblessed the land
for the damned,
Those snakes are serpentines.
Holiness. It's as if their teeth puncture two apperture's downward,
rapidly."

"Yes..."

"Oh yes, we're happening"

I remember it happening. It was a trippy experience, might I ad.

[Boerseun]

Australian snakes are as poinsonous as they are, in order to sell more of the serum, Victoria Bitter. VB can also be taken as a preventative measure, and should ideally be taken by the gallon for it to work effectively if bitten by a snake. It wears of rather quickly, though, and therefore need to be taken on a daily basis. XXXX works good to, but not exactly as good.

On a more serious note, I guess its actually because the Australian species have been geographically seperated from the rest of the world for much longer than the other species has been seperated from each other, and severe toxicity is just the evolutionary path they took, what with having a more restricted gene pool and smaller numbers which enhanced the speed of the evolutionary process by a factor of x.

[orbsycli]

----Not that I believed him.

It was just strange. Thought I would toss someth

[bpjg2fat]

those snakes that spit acid? could you trip off of that?

[orbsycli]

Originally Posted by bpjg2fat

those snakes that spit acid? could you trip off of that?

not that i'm aware of.
you'd just die in pain

[bpjg2fat]

bummer

[Drip Curl Magic]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

It's funny because I asked this in a confession booth once at a completely random (which isn't really random at all) church in Portland, Maine.

"Father, Why are the snakes in Austrailia so poisonous?"

"My son, god deblessed the land
for the damned,
Those snakes are serpentines.
Holiness. It's as if their teeth puncture two apperture's downward,
rapidly."

"Yes..."

"Oh yes, we're happening"

I remember it happening. It was a trippy experience, might I ad.

[InfiniteNow]

Easy answer? Because their toxicity proved to be a trait that furthered their survival. Those who were less toxic died off.

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Easy answer? Because their toxicity proved to be a trait that furthered their survival. Those who were less toxic died off.

It can be speculated (and I do!) that in N.America, there were fewer predators of snakes, and possibly better cover for snakes, except in certain areas. So we have many snakes that prosper very well, thank you very much, without having to be armed and dangerous.

Would need to research the climatology and ecology of Australia over the last coupla million years to justify this.