Okay so yesterday I talked I talked about snakes and the ways they protect themselves and some of the other unique abilities they have to help them to survive in this big big world. Today were moving on to the other side of the herpetology world and are going to look at amphibians. Now when I went over snakes my goal was to hit on their main defensive mechanism, which is venom. For amphibians we are going to look at the popular mechanic of poison. This is going to lead us a very popular host of venom, which is the poison dart frog. However, for the record there are many other kinds of animals that are poisonous such as snails, fish, mollusks, and one snake (Asian Tigersnake).
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| The Asian Tiger snake is one example of a poisonous snake and is also venomous. They are in the class colubridae and receive their poison from toads they eat. For more info - (http://www.snakesoftaiwan.com/Rhabdophis%20tigrinus%20formosanus/species_rhabdophis_tigrinus.htm)
So the difference between venom and poison are quite simple. Venom must be injected to take affect, and poison can be ingested or injected or just pretty much absorbed in any way. For instance if I grab a poison dart frog in the middle of a rain forest. I would absorb the poisonous toxins from the frogs mucous-like skin and probably die if not come close to it. Venom, unlike poison, must be injected. So if I grab a king cobra and he spits venom onto my skin I would be fine (except for the fact that I should probably do something before the cobra spits ion my eyes or bites me). Now in the cobras venom would go into an open wound or if the cobra was to bite me then its neurotoxins would slowly start to shut down my body.
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However awesome venom may be! I already talked about it and encourage you to read my previous post about snakes and venom (Some Deadly Defenses). So poison is an awesome thing it affects your body in many ways. There are many different kinds of poisons that you can get from many hosts. The poison dart frog (Dendrobatidae) is the host of the day, however, because a certain family member of the poison dart frogs can kill 10 full grown men with a drop of poison. Batrachotoxin is the specific type of poison used in this frog. Like the neurotoxic venom of a snake this frogs poison damages the humans nervous system. The frog that contains this toxin is the golden poison dart frog.
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The golden poison dart frog is the most toxic in the poison dart frog family. He is one of the three popular, lethal dart frogs towards humans. (http://biologypop.com/poison-dart-frog/)
The poison dart frogs can be found in the South American Amazon. There it faces little predators that are willing to eat it yet alone get near it. However, the Fire-bellied snake is one predator of the poison dart frog. It is supposedly able to break dine the poisons to be able to digest the frog, but full grown poison dart frogs have been know to kill this snake even with this snake's ability to overcome the poison. Poison dart frogs receive their poison from the insects they eat, such as ants and termites. Theses insects often get it from plants that they harvest. They are alkaloid-containing organisms. They receive their poison from another host, which receives it from an organic plant. (Alkaloid is specifically a nitrogenous compound) Poison dart frogs can specifically contain alkaloid and naturally will secrete it through their serous glands onto their skin. This gives the poison dart frogs a mucous look along with their flashy, flagrant color. The reason scientist have come to the conclusion that poison dart frogs receive their toxins from other hosts is simply because, when in captivity the poison dart frog will not contain any alkaloids, when they are fed organisms which contain no alkaloid, but when they consume arthropods that do contain alkaloid they are then "poisonous". To simplify. A poison dart frog is only poisonous when fed certain poisonous arthropods. Links that assisted me write this page: 1. http://www.lakeforest.edu/live/files/538-altoreviewpdf 2. http://biologypop.com/poison-dart-frog/ (For more information on some other poisonous cool amphibians such as: newts belonging to the genus taricha (which contain tetrodotoxins), the Mantella (look similar to poison dart frogs), and the invasive cane toad) check out these links: Cane Toad http://australianmuseum.net.au/cane-toad Mantellahttp://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Frog-Amphibian-Species/Poison-Frogs-of-the-Genus-Mantella/ Taricha http://amphibiaweb.org/species/4288 Feel free to comment for any questions! Or any ideas for my next articles. |
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