A reptile holder based in the Czech Republic was bitten into his hand and foot by the Northeast saw-scaled viper (Echis pyramidum). The person arrived at the health institution after twenty hours for anuria. Despite the antivenom against the Asian Echis carinatum - the Echis pyramidum's close relative - was readily available and administered repea...

Massospondylus carinatus is a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the early Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa. It is one of the best-represented fossil dinosaur taxa, known from hundreds of specimens including at least 13 complete or nearly complete skulls. Surprisingly, the internal cranial anatomy of M. carinatus has never been described using computed tomography (CT) methods. Using CT...

The processes that drive the evolution of snake venom variability, particularly the role of diet, have been a topic of intense recent research interest. Here, we test whether extensive variation in venom composition in the medically important viper genus Echis is associated with shifts in diet. Examination of stomach and hindgut contents revealed extreme variation between the major clades of Ec...

Maymyo, Burma. Thk following interesting case of ophitoxsemia occurred in Karachi when I was Assistant Director of Medical Services in that district. The case came under the care of Major Newton Davis, i.M.S., to whom I am indebted for these notes. I append an abridged version of the notes on the case sheet. History.?Babu Kale, a sepoy in the 215th Mahratta Light Infantry, aged 23, reported sic...

One hundred and eighty two cases of snakebite were admitted during twelve months at five hospitals situated in five different districts of rural Maharashtra. Out of these 55 (30.2%), 38 (20.8%), 48 (26.3%), 41 (22.5%) cases were bitten by Echis carinatus (Eh), Russell's viper (Rv), krait (Kr) and Cobra (Cr) respectively. Clinical confirmation of snakebite with envenoming was by identification o...

The venom protein, s-echistatin, originally derived from the saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus, was found to be a potent inhibitor of bone resorption by isolated osteoclasts. This Arg24-Gly25-Asp26-(RGD)-containing protein inhibited the excavation of bone slices by rat osteoclasts (IC50 = 0.1 nM). It also inhibited the release of [3H]proline from labeled bone particles by chicken osteoclasts (IC...

Envenoming by Echis ocellatus is potentially life-threatening due to severe hemorrhage, renal failure and capillary leakage. These effects are attributed snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs). ...

Doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) is an exception to the typical maternal inheritance of mitochondrial (mt) DNA in Metazoa, and found only in some bivalves. In species with DUI, there are two highly divergent gender-associated mt genomes: maternal (F) and paternal (M), which transmit independently and show different tissue localization. Solenaia carinatus is an endangered freshwater mussel s...

Venomous snakebite is a life-threatening injury in many tropical and subtropical areas including Iran. The gold standard treatment option for human envenomation is the use of antivenoms. Despite the unique effects of horse-derived antivenoms on the treatment of snakebite, they are not fully perfect and need improvements. In this study, human recombinant Fab fragment antivenom was produced in Ro...

The composition of snake venoms shows a high degree of variation at all taxonomic levels, and natural selection for diet has been implicated as a potential cause. Saw-scaled vipers (Echis) provide a good model for studying this phenomenon. The venoms of arthropod feeding species of Echis are significantly more toxic to natural scorpion prey than those of species which feed predominantly upon ve...