The New York Times, November 22, 2005
Which came first, the snake or the venom?
Bryan Fry, a biologist at the University of Melbourne who has spent the last few years reconstructing the evolutionary history of snake venom, decided to find out.
He had already isolated genes for toxins in cobras, rattlesnakes and other deadly species. And he had discovered related genes in harmless species like garter snakes.
Back in February I discovered the remarkable work of Australian biologist Bryan Grieg Fry, who has been tracing the evolution of venom. As I wrote in the New York Times, he searched the genomes of snakes for venom genes. He discovered that even non-venomous snakes produce venom. By drawing an evolutionary tree of the venom genes, Fry showed that the common ancestor of living snakes had several kinds of venom, which had evolved through accidental “borrowing” of proteins produced in other parts of the body. Later, these genes duplicated to create a sophisticated cocktail of venoms–a cocktail that varied from one lineage of snakes to another.
Continue reading “Which Came First, the Snake or the Venom?”
Following up on my earlier post, I wanted to relay one more piece of book news. I’ve been getting some emails over the past couple months inquiring about my book, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. I wrote it as a companion volume to the 2001 PBS television series, Evolution. Like the series, the book surveys the history and cutting edge of evolutionary biology, from the origin of new species to mass extinctions, from the rise of complex life to the emergence of humans. It also looks at ongoing evolutionary races, whether the competitors are hosts and parasites or members of the opposite sex. It puts evolution in a historical context, showing how Darwin’s theory emerged out of the science of his time and how social and political tensions have produced hostility to the notion of evolution today. (More details about the book can be found here.)
My latest book, Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins is now available on Amazon.com, and I think it’s getting put on the shelves at bookstores. I’ve only referred to the book here glancingly from time to time, and I wanted to take a minute now to give Loom readers a sense of the book (and perhaps inspire the sales of a few copies).
This story starts in 1987, with the skin of a frog.