Thursday, March 28

Time proved Indiana Jones right about scorpions | Digital Trends Spanish


There is a phrase in the movie Indiana Jones and the Skull Kingdom which gives reason to the character created by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, since the famous archaeologist spoke about the danger of death that the bite of the scorpions depending on its size.

  • – I was stung by a scorpion! I’m going to die?
    – Which size?
    – Enormous!
    – How good. With scorpions, the bigger the better. If a small one bites you, let me know right away.

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This is because Irish scientists indicated that smaller scorpions are more lethal than large ones with huge claws.

The team of scientists at the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway put this argument from the movie script to the test by analyzing 36 species of scorpions to show that larger scorpions have less potent venoms and are actually better at avoiding a nasty sting.

The research was published in the journal Toxins and shows for example how dangerous the small South African fat-tailed scorpion is.

Dr Kevin Healy, Professor of Zoology at NUI Galway and lead author of the study, said in a statement that “entertaining movie plots aside, there are good evolutionary reasons to expect the results and important medical implications for such patterns.”

The main theory of the study is that the largest scorpions, when using tweezers of that size, concentrate their attack power there, rather than in the poison of their stingers.

Alannah Forde, NUI Galway graduate student and lead author of the study, says: “Not only did we find that bigger is better, when it comes to human bites, we also found that bigger tweezers are better when it comes to assessing the danger level of a scorpion. While species like the large-clawed scorpion can be small to medium in size, they rely primarily on their large claws rather than their relatively weak venom.”

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