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boa constrictor got its name for a reason. A boa wraps around and squeezes enough to kill its prey. to stop the blood of the preyand then, opening its jaws, it swallows them all. They are known to eat opossums and rats. Can eat anacondas, which are some of their larger relatives capybara and deerand there were some python instances eating people.

But narrowing and swallowing prey is no small or quick feat. “They do this for 10, 15, 45 minutes,” he said. Elizabeth BrainerdAn evolutionary biologist at Brown University, Dr. “And that takes a lot of energyso they must be breathing.”

Dr. Brainerd and colleagues set out to understand how boa constrictors breathe in such cramped conditions and discovered that they can precisely change the region of the enlarged rib cage to draw air into their lungs. their job Published on Thursday in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Their findings shed light on the anatomy of snakes and how these creeping predators began to evolve in many parts of the world.

“Swallowing large prey really opened up all these new avenues for snakes to evolve, otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible,” he said. John CapanoAn evolutionary biologist at Brown University and the study’s author, Dr.

Looking at the vertebrate tree of life shows that taking in and releasing air is more complex than it seems.

“Breathing is one of those things that seems super simple,” he said. Allison HsiangA computational paleobiologist at Stockholm University who was not involved in the study, Dr. “But if we look at all the major vertebrate groups, basically we all breathe using completely different systems.”

For example, humans have a diaphragm, while birds air sacs. However, snakes are completely dependent on their rib cages, and in addition, they have large, long physiques that sit behind a relatively small head and need a lot of food to maintain.

Dr. “Basically all snakes are ribs,” Brainerd said. Animals slowly expand part of their rib cage to breathe, which creates a pressure change that draws air in.

When tightening, these ribs are compressed. Swallowing prey also expands the ribs to their limits. Exactly how boas breathe when contracting or swallowing has remained a mystery.

Dr. “Something had to happen in the evolution of their lung ventilation systems for them to evolve into these long, small-headed animals that eat big meals,” Brainerd said.

Based on previous observations in the field, the scientists theorized that the snakes most likely altered the specific region of the enlarged rib cage as they constricted and swallowed their prey. But another option would be for them to use any uncompressed area of ​​the rib cage to draw air into their lungs.

To test these hypotheses, the research group visualized a boa constrictor’s rib cage during contraction using 3-D X-ray technology. While the snakes were under anesthesia, the team placed metal markers no larger than half a millimeter on the ribs and vertebrae they wanted to image. They then filmed these areas with X-ray video and, using a blood pressure cuff, restricted rib movement in certain areas, simulating what happens in nature when these snakes snarl their prey.

At rest, boa constrictors breathe using their ribs, which are near the upper third of their lungs. But when the blood pressure cuff was wrapped around those ribs, a certain set of ribs further down the snake’s body began to expand to draw in air. “The snake just closes one part of the rib cage and then opens another part,” said Dr. Capano added that as soon as the cuff is removed, the ribs immediately breathe at rest.

The team believes the ability to modulate rib interaction arose during or before the snakes’ ability to contract and perhaps precede a snake’s ability to eat large prey. Without this breathing adaptation, they say, snakes wouldn’t have been such a diverse class of reptiles spread across the globe.