Venomous snakes put the squeeze on their own lungs when they wrap their prey in a deadly embrace. New research shows how remarkable reptile use breathing techniques to avoid suffocating themselves.
Snakes use a series of muscles around their rib cage to help inflate their lungs. Scientists have been puzzled over how the snakes survive when their muscles are restricted by crushing a struggling animal.
A team of researchers, led by John Capano of Brown University, reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology that boa constrictors are able to move individual rib muscles at a given moment. Small areas of the lungs are able to function like a pump, sucking air through the constrictions to absorb as much oxygen as possible. Capano says that if they're not ventilating with the squeezed region of the lung, it will collapse.
The researchers wrapped boa constrictors with blood pressure cuffs so they wouldn't expand. Respiratory flow was measured using small masks on the reptile's snout. The snakes turned out to be skeptics. The biggest challenge was getting the animals to perform in the lab.
The researchers were able to see how the snakes used breathing techniques. The recordings of electrical activity and x-ray images proved that nerve impulses activated specific muscles. The snakes did not attempt to breathe with their rib cage, instead using muscles on their ribs to move. The ability would have allowed the snakes to swallow larger prey, according to the researchers.
Eletra de Souza is a snake researcher at the University of So Paulo. The adaptation of snakes to their environment always surprises me. It's amazing to see how these animals are able to survive in a world without limbs.
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