Bones!

August 23rd, 2025| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Burmese pythons, giant snakes that can get up to 18 feet long in ye olde state of Florida, and can eat prey almost that size, have been known for another stunning digestive fact: lots of bones go in at one end of the reptile, but no bones ever come out.

We now know why, or so claimeth scientists from France and the USA in “Diet-Dependent Production of Calcium- and Phosphorus-Rich ‘Spheroids’ along the Intestine of Burmese Pythons: Identification of a New Cell Type?” published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Turns out the intimidating predators have a previously unknown cell type in the walls of their guts that completely dissolves bones!

Professor Jehan-Hervé Lignot of the University of Montpellier in France is credited with making the discovery, using captive juvenile pythons as his test subjects for bone dissolving:

Mechanisms that enable them to do this have remained mysterious until now.”

The researchers fed three types of meals to young pythons: whole rodents (bones and all), boneless rodents, and boneless rodents injected with calcium carbonate (to load the predator with the breakdown material of bones).

It became clear that the intestines of the snakes reacted differently when they were fed whole rodents or rodents injected with calcium, the researchers said. Not only were they able to completely dissolve the skeletons, but they also were able to excrete excess calcium in cases where too much bone was consumed (or when boneless rodents + CaCO3 was fed to them). Not a sliver of bone at the other end in any case.

This cell type is also found in other snake species, boas et al., that eat vertebrates, as well as in a lizard, the Gila monster.

Added Prof. Lignot:

Marine predators that eat bony fish or aquatic mammals must face the same problem. Birds that eat mostly bones, such as the bearded vulture, would be fascinating candidates too.”

Fascinating stuff. Oh, the depth of our ignorance! (The more we find out, the more we realize that we know … almost nothing!)

But this we know, for the Bible tells us so: watch your bones, lest they “waste away”!

Blessing [upon] the one pardoned of rebellion, whose sin is covered.
Blessing [upon] the person to whom the Yahweh does not consider iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
it was directed to my destruction [as] with the dry heat of summer.
Psalm 32:1–4

There is a way to keep our bones:

My sin I acknowledged to You, and my iniquity I did not cover;
I said, “I will confess my rebellions to Yahweh”;
and You—You pardoned the iniquity of my sin.
Therefore, let everyone who is devout pray to You ….
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not draw near to him.
Psalm 32:5–6

And more than bones will be preserved!

You are a hiding place to me; from distress You preserve me;
with shouts of salvation You surround me.
Psalm 32:7

Says God:

“I will instruct you and I will teach you in the path which you should walk; ….
Do not be like the horse, the mule, without understanding, ….”
Psalm 32:8–9

In sum:

Many are the pains of the wicked,
but he who trusts in Yahweh, lovingkindness shall surround him.
Be joyful in Yahweh … and shout for joy, all [who are] upright of heart.
Psalm 32:10–11

Intact bones. Always good.

SOURCE: Miami Herald; Journal of Experimental Biology