Researchers have discovered that special calcium cells are calcium from the bones of the intestinal layers of Python bivittatus in Burma. This helps explain how these predators digest their entire prey.
The team published their findings in the Journal of Experimental Biology on June 25th.
Pisons in Burmese usually eat birds and small mammals, but do not need to eat them every day. The snake swallows the entire prey and spends several days digesting the food before hunting again.
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As part of digestion, Pison breaks down the bones of prey. Bones provide the calcium needed for a snake’s diet, but Pison cannot use all calcium. “We wanted to identify and limit the way they can pass this huge calcium absorption through the walls of our intestine,” he said in a statement in a research study by Jehan Helve Lignott, a biologist at the University of Montpellier in France.
To investigate how snakes managed calcium intake, researchers fed Burmese Pisons to one of three meals. A low calcium diet with boneless prey. A diet with boneless prey and calcium supplements. After several meals, the team studied the effects of each regimen on the snake’s intestines.
The team discovered that narrow, specialized cells in the intestinal layer of Pythons play a role in bone digestion. Among snakes that fed whole or boneless prey with calcium supplements, these cells retained particles made up of calcium, iron and phosphorus. However, these particles were absent in snakes that only fed boneless prey.
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The cells may be involved in dispelling calcium that snakes have not been able to absorb. The researchers said in the study that cells could concentrate excess calcium into particles and release the particles into snake feces along with other undigested components.
Since discovering narrow intestinal cells in Burmese pythons, scientists have discovered them in other pythons, boa intestines and Gira monsters (suspected Heroderma). However, there is no evidence yet that other animals that swallow entire prey, such as dolphins and fish-eating birds, produce these calcium particles.
Further research could reveal how widespread these bone digestive cells are in the animal kingdom, the researchers wrote.
“Married predators eating bones and aquatic mammals must face the same problem: digesting bones and removing excess calcium,” Rignott said in a statement. “Most bone-eating birds, such as bearded vultures. [Gypaetus barbatus]He is also an attractive candidate. ”
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