Holy Starving Snakes, Batman!

[Aggie]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/08/20/snakes_ani.html?category=animals&guid=20070820110000

Very interesting article from Discovery News on snake starvation experiments.
I'm thinking this one was not sponsored by PETA.  They are pretty blunt about their methods:

For his study, McCue put 20 ball pythons, 22 ratsnakes and 20 western diamondback rattlesnakes through 168 days of starvation. Weight and other measurements were taken at regular intervals. After the 168 days, McCue chemically euthanized each snake and pureed it in a blender in order to better conduct chemical analysis.

Methods aside, some of the physiological changes noted are pretty cool:

Measurements revealed the snakes actually grew longer during the fast. Growth especially was noticed in the head.

"Larger head bones mean that they can choose from a wider range of potential prey items," he said, noting that snakes cannot chew and therefore must be able to swallow whole animals.

The chemical analysis determined the snakes break down saturated fatty acids into polyunsaturated fats by "picking off bits of hydrogen for energy."

Intestinal fat, which he likened to "belly fat" in humans, as well as fatty liver tissues were among the first to be targeted. As a byproduct, water formed in the snakes' bodies, causing them to "bloat" by around 7 percent.

Then the snakes would digest their own heart muscle.

WANT to adapt that dehydrogenation pathway for human metabolic use.   

[Swatopluk]

But how to deal with the bigger head (I dodubt that the brains grows too)?

[Aggie]

That I could use also, although my jaw span is quite adequate.

[Swatopluk]

Mine is not. I am reminded of that every time I visit the dentist. My incisors can't move more than 4 cm away from each other and the maximum mouth width is just 6 cm.

[Aggie]

_{ok, turn your dirty circuits off....}

Well, I also have a width of 6 cm, but I can get a 6 cm incisor spread as well, so anything up to about 6 cm diameter is prey fair game.  With a little manual assistance, sandwiches of considerably larger thicknesses are quite possible.

And if I can get it in my mouth, I can chew and swallow it, even if it protrudes from the mouth a little. 

However, I still have a bit of a narrow head.  One of my fiancee's Korean friends met me, and his first comment was "Wow, you have a really small head".  It's a width vs. depth thing, especially compared to Koreans....  the a/p length of my head is approximately equal to the left-right width of my SO's head, and vice-versa, with a similar circumference and (I assume) volume.

[Swatopluk]

Snakes have it easier with the dentist (and would even with human teeth). They can reversibly dislocate their jaws.

[The Meromorph]

I can just hear the conversation now...

"Ya gotta pretty big mouth on ya there, buddy!"

"Well, I ain't eaten a single rat for at least six months!"


"Ullp!"

[Sibling Chatty]

OH, hell, I must be part snake.

(I have heart damage from when the carcinoid was so bad that the pellagra was eating away at muscle tissue, including the heart. Thanks, great American health care system.)

[Griffin NoName]

Could this account for the saying your eyes are bigger than your tummy ?

[Swatopluk]

I can just hear the conversation now...

"Ya gotta pretty big mouth on ya there, buddy!"

"Well, I ain't eaten a single rat for at least six months!"
"Ullp!"

Little Red Starving Snake?

[ivor]

I have a giant head already.  I would be like an upside down Weeble. 

[Swatopluk]

As long as you don't meet the Feebles

Did any of the snakes try to eat itself (Ouroboros) ?

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

And now imagine, what all those snakes would do on a plane?!

[Swatopluk]

At least it would not leave untidy carcasses. Imagine the mess, if it were lions or tigers or bears on a plane (or zombies, there is a film on that).

Btw, have you seen the clip 300 Spartans on a Plane ?
If not, google and watch it!

[ivor]

That was great! "Tonight we dine in Cleveland!"  Too funny!