Cone Snail is also called "Taro Snail" because it is shaped like the heart or taro of a chicken. Mainly growing in tropical oceans, it is a beautiful snail that lives on coastal coral reefs and beaches, and there are many types of snails, with different colors and patterns, which can be described as exquisite.
These colorful and ornately patterned shells are popular among collectors, but what makes them famous is not the shell with its unique pattern, but the venom that can make people scream for their lives.
It is commonly found near coral reefs in the equatorial sea (more common in Brazil) and its largest individual can grow to about 23 cm. There are about 500 species of taro snails in the world, all over the warm sea areas of the world, and there are more than 100 species of taro snails in China, mainly distributed in the Xisha Islands, Hainan Island and Taiwan seas. Only a few are found along the mainland coasts of Guangxi and Guangdong north of Hainan Island, and some extend into the East China Sea.
Watched the appreciative grip fatally
The most beautiful are usually the deadliest. Although this statement is not completely absolute, it can be verified in most living things.
Taro snails have a strong natural evolutionary ability, including hundreds of species in a single genus, which is extremely rare in various organisms, and its ability to adapt to new habitats is extremely strong. The ability to evolve rapidly has made the snail one of the most evolutionarily successful creatures among marine invertebrates.
The unique evolution has made the snail have a powerful toxin, which works quickly and can immediately make the prey unable to move, of course, the toxin is not without reason for the rapid action, because it is a snail, not good at swimming, unable to quickly chase their food. If the prey escapes, it runs out of food.
The snail is rather slow to move, and when preying, it has two hunting methods, one is to release venom into the surrounding seawater, and the more common is the second, they will project needle-like tongues and tongues connecting venom tubes and venom sacs to their prey, and inject multiple mixed venoms. Once the prey is hit, it is immediately paralyzed and becomes the food of the snail.
For predatory mollusks, the tooth tongue serves both the purpose of the tongue and its teeth. Shaped like a "harpoon", hollow and sharp, it is connected to the root of the tongue. When there is a prey approaching, it extends the long tubular beak to the prey, and through the contraction of the muscle, the "harpoon" filled with venom is shot from the beak like a bullet to the prey, and the venom can instantly paralyze the small fish, and then the snail retracts its teeth and tongue and drags the subdued prey into its mouth.
Roses have thorns and taro snails are poisonous
Taro snail venom is the main weapon of predation and defense, the venom is very toxic, the taro snail through its harpoon-like teeth into the naked divers, fishermen, swimmers and other marine workers in contact with it, sharp "harpoon" can penetrate gloves, wetsuits and skin, the venom directly into the body. Accidental or improper eating can also cause systemic poisoning. There are no effective treatments, and symptomatic and supportive therapies are generally used.
Cat taro snail
300 years ago, there were records of snail poisoning snail pickers, and so far there have been more than 30 records of deaths due to taro snail venom. In cases of snail stings, the fastest is to die within an hour.
Of course, these venoms are not intended for humans. In addition to predation, the snail will only use its weapon, the tooth tongue, when its life is threatened and in danger. Therefore, when you see a shell with a unique surface and a unique pattern when you play by the beach, don't carelessly pick up and play, who knows if there will be a fierce and violent elf living inside the beautiful shell.
Flying shell taro snail
Recipes determine toxins
The toxicity of taro snails is related to its diet, and according to its predatory habits, it is divided into fish-eating taro snails, snail-eating taro snails, and insect-eating taro snails.
Fish as a natural food of taro snails are the most poisonous, such as phantom taro snails, linear taro snails, ground snails (that is, the famous killer taro snails), cat taro snails, Maran taro snails and missile taro snails and so on.
Mollusks are the second to eat, and seaworms are the least toxic and most common, and when they bite, they are almost as stinging as bees.
A new member of the world of poisonous animals, the snail only began to use its own poisonous defensive weapons tens of millions of years ago, and its toxin is still in the process of evolution. Different snails use different venoms.
The complexity of the taro snail venom far exceeds that of other animals, and other poisons only carry one or two toxins, and the toxin is strong, however, a drop of taro snail venom contains hundreds, if not thousands, of toxins.
Although the snail is small in size and there is not much venom in the bag, the mixture of various toxins is enough for humans, and the venom is the fastest venom that can stop fish from struggling and waiting to be eaten within 50 milliseconds, and the toxicity of the snail toxin is no less than its speed, and one milligram of venom can kill adults.
A conch where beauty and danger coexist
The toxin in the venom of the taro snail is a biologically active polypeptide, polypeptide refers to the compound formed by the dehydration of multiple amino acid molecules, the active polypeptide is a toxin, and the venom of each taro snail may contain 50 to 200 active polypeptides. Different species of taro snail contain different active peptides, even if the same species of taro snail due to different sea areas, its toxin composition can also be different, theoretically estimated that there are more than 50,000 different active peptides present in the taro snail venom.
When 200 species of taro toxins are injected into our bodies at a time, they begin to show their strength, and when the Venom Force attacks the human body, it does not adopt the tactic of concentrated combat, but allows each toxin to exert its own unique ability to attack different targets and fight together.
Killer snail (live)
There are two models of this combined mechanism of action that has been understood.
One pattern is called "shock + paralysis", such as purple potato snail has two different types of toxins, one class of toxins can cause predatory organisms to immediately produce a rapid effect similar to electroconvulsive tonic paralysis, leading to shock symptoms. Another type of toxin can completely block the neuromuscular conduction, so that predatory organisms for a long time paralysis, in the two types of different effects of the toxins of the joint action, purple taro snail and other fish-eating taro snails, both can quickly catch fish, but also can calmly swallow them.
Tulip taro snail (Maran taro snail)
Another mode is called "stabilization + paralysis", such as the ground snail, when the predator enters its mouth, it does not occur the convulsive condition that is often bitten by the bite, but is very quiet, indicating that the ground snail uses a different mode from "shock + paralysis", the ground snail is rich in Conantokin-G, Contulakin-G and other snail sleep peptides, these peptides can blunt the sensory system of predatory organisms and inactivate them, in a stable sleep state. Then, under the action of α- and μ-taro toxin, it enters the paralysis paralysis period and achieves the purpose of predation.
Killer Taro Snail (Ground Taro Snail)
This is the magic conch.
Such a terrible snail, naturally should be as far away from it as possible to ensure its own safety.
But nature is magical, everything has its own sides, beautiful and dangerous taro snails, also happen to be a panacea, the venom of taro snails is a huge treasure, when the biologist came to the door of the treasure to find a gem, he made a painkiller 1000 times stronger than morphine.
morphine
All of the toxins of the snail are nerve poisons, but they act on a variety of different receptors of the victim's nerve or muscle cells. It is this property that makes snails useful not only for themselves but also for humans, who use their toxins as probes to study neural routes.
Taro toxin structure simulation diagram
Dr. Oliveira proposed an omega taro spirotoxin from conusmagic to make sesamin, which is 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
Before the invention of the taro toxin analgesic, morphine was used to relieve cancer pain in cancer patients, morphine was extracted from the poppy, if morphine was taken for a long time, it was necessary to increase the dose to maintain the analgesic effect of morphine, although morphine is an addictive drug, injecting morphine is equivalent to drinking duck thirst, but it is still the first choice for cancer pain patients, because there is no more powerful painkiller.
Now cancer pain patients can inject taro snail toxin instead of morphine, in addition to crushing the analgesic effect of morphine, taro snail toxin analgesics are not addictive, powerful but not addictive.
The secret that taro toxin painkillers do not cause dependence is that it will only do one thing: turn off the calcium channel, until it is found that omega taro spirotoxin can inhibit the n-type voltage-dependent calcium channel, biologists know that this ion channel is related to neuropathic pain, through the study of omega- taro spiro toxin, successfully developed a calcium channel closure targeted analgesic.
Taro toxin is simulated in muscle junction areas
Mysterious and huge treasure
Compared with other natural peptide toxoids, spirotoxin has outstanding advantages such as small molecular weight, stable structure, high activity, high selectivity and ease of synthesis. It can be used not only directly as a drug, but also as an ideal molecular template for the development of new drug lead compounds, which is also of great significance for the study of neurobiology.
The range of treatments for the diseases studied included chronic pain, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular disease, mental disorders, movement disorders, spasms, cancer, and stroke. A variety of taro toxins with strong neuromuscular blocking effects are also being studied as an adjunctive drugs for clinical anesthesia surgery, and rapid paralysis of the laryngeal muscles helps with surgeries such as endotracheal intubation. China started late in this regard, and only in 1999 did it really begin to study the venom of the snail distributed in China.
Tens of thousands of taro toxins, human beings have only unlocked a small part of the secret, leaving a huge treasure waiting for us to explore and excavate, who can think that these distant toxins have finally turned into a life-saving recipe, for which we have to lament the magic of nature.
Respecting nature, fearing life, and following the laws of nature are eternal truths, and every species has the right to ensure its own survival and maintain the balance of the ecosystem, which is a long-term and non-negligible lesson.
To respect life is to respect human beings themselves.
(Graphic data from the Network)