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Scaring scorpions makes them more venomous
March 14, 2016|Uncategorized

Scaring scorpions makes them more venomous

Although they look all A-team tough on the exterior with armour-plating and a don’t mess with me stinging tail, scorpions can actually be a bunch of scaredy cats. But don’t take this as a weakness because the scarder (yes that is a word, Google said so…) they are, the more potent their venom becomes. No-one has been able to show this in any other venomous animal.

Here’s how it all goes down (or up in this case..) Scorpions have two components to their venom. One for using in defence against furry animals with sharp teeth such as small marsupials and mice who like to eat scorpions and the other to capture prey such as crickets and spiders.

What researches found was that when the scorpion was regularly exposed to predators i.e the highly frightening frankenmouse, the amount of venom for defence increased and the venom for capturing prey decreased.
Which makes perfect sense, you need to try and give anything that is going to eat you as much whoop-ass as possible which comes in the form of a deadly tail fashioned with a venomous sting.

What is even more amazing is that they can do this within 4 weeks! If a venomous snake tried to pull that off, it would take them generations, which makes it super cool for a scorpion to be a super scary cat. The key message here… embrace your vulnerable side it could give you super powers. Don’t take our work for it, check out the video.

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The Nature of Science (TNOS) showcases scientific research using our warped sense of humour, brains trust and creativity. See behind the microscopes, beakers and re-breathers as we dig a little deeper into the research and discovery of the natural world. If you want to take a walk on the wild side dust off your lab coats and jump on board as our talented team of scientists and world-class cinematographers use time-lapse and high-speed footage sequences to showcase science and nature like never before.
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