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Solenodon: a venomous mammal survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

36 points by curtis 9y ago

jgh 9y ago
kind of amazing that they managed to survive being relatively close to such a large asteroid impact.
- Erlangolem 9y ago
  It can really pay off to live underground, feeding on things that eat detritus and also live underground. That’s pretty much the story of our distant ancestral mammals, and why were here having this chat. Burrow into the earth, hibernate, have loads of babies, eat anything; it was quite the winning strategy.
eric_h 9y ago
> Both Solenodon species are listed as critically endangered and are facing multiple threats from deforestation, increased human activity and predation by dogs, cats and mongooses. They survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, but can they survive the Anthropocene? As an aside, I think the venom adaptation is pretty fascinating. Given that their diet is primarily invertebrates, what purpose does the venom serve? Is it primarily for defense?
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  Some species of shrews (including at least one found in North America) have venom as well. They use it to paralyze larger prey, which they can then eat at their leisure.
jonathanyc 9y ago
I wonder why most animals that are still alive look relatively non-alien to us. A lot of animals from the Cambrian Explosion look extremely weird. Is there some underlying aesthetic principle that is somehow encoded in our brains that is related to what it means to exist in our ecosystem?
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  Many of the weirder-looking lineages (e.g., Tully monsters) from that era went extinct, root and branch, and most of the surviving "weird" animals live in niches that don't overlap with humans very much (e.g., extreme ocean depths). I think it's likely that non-weird (to us) body forms are those that are better at surviving in non-weird (again, to us) environments. You see this kind of thing in human activities, too. Most all planes look similar today compared to the bizarre variety of planes that were used in the early days of aviation (you don't see many triplanes around nowadays). There again, the exceptions tend to be planes that operate in some kind of weird modality (e.g., stealth bombers, or the Gossamer X series of pedal-powered aircraft).
  - jonathanyc 9y ago
    Ah, that’s a pretty good theory, thanks.

36 points by curtis 9y ago

jgh 9y ago

kind of amazing that they managed to survive being relatively close to such a large asteroid impact.

Erlangolem 9y ago
It can really pay off to live underground, feeding on things that eat detritus and also live underground. That’s pretty much the story of our distant ancestral mammals, and why were here having this chat. Burrow into the earth, hibernate, have loads of babies, eat anything; it was quite the winning strategy.

eric_h 9y ago

> Both Solenodon species are listed as critically endangered and are facing multiple threats from deforestation, increased human activity and predation by dogs, cats and mongooses. They survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, but can they survive the Anthropocene? As an aside, I think the venom adaptation is pretty fascinating. Given that their diet is primarily invertebrates, what purpose does the venom serve? Is it primarily for defense?

Turing_Machine 9y ago
Some species of shrews (including at least one found in North America) have venom as well. They use it to paralyze larger prey, which they can then eat at their leisure.

jonathanyc 9y ago

I wonder why most animals that are still alive look relatively non-alien to us. A lot of animals from the Cambrian Explosion look extremely weird. Is there some underlying aesthetic principle that is somehow encoded in our brains that is related to what it means to exist in our ecosystem?

Turing_Machine 9y ago
Many of the weirder-looking lineages (e.g., Tully monsters) from that era went extinct, root and branch, and most of the surviving "weird" animals live in niches that don't overlap with humans very much (e.g., extreme ocean depths). I think it's likely that non-weird (to us) body forms are those that are better at surviving in non-weird (again, to us) environments. You see this kind of thing in human activities, too. Most all planes look similar today compared to the bizarre variety of planes that were used in the early days of aviation (you don't see many triplanes around nowadays). There again, the exceptions tend to be planes that operate in some kind of weird modality (e.g., stealth bombers, or the Gossamer X series of pedal-powered aircraft).
- jonathanyc 9y ago
  Ah, that’s a pretty good theory, thanks.