The secret of a rattlesnake's bite after death

Rattlesnakes are poisonous enough to kill people who have been bitten, but postmortem rattlesnakes are just as dangerous and can bounce and attack even within an hour after death. Researchers at the philanthropist Regional Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, have found that rattlesnakes have a reflex in biting and are not affected by the brain.

The researchers interviewed 34 people who had been bitten by rattlesnakes, five of whom said they had been bitten by dead rattlesnakes, even though the rattlesnakes had been killed or even had their heads removed. Scientists have always known that the head of a rattlesnake has special organs that can use infrared light to sense feverish animals nearby. The ability of rattlesnakes to bite after death comes from the reflex of these infrared sensing organs.

Even if other physical functions of rattlesnakes have stopped, as long as the sensory organs and tissues of the head are not rotten, that is, within an hour after death, rattlesnakes can still detect organisms that emit heat within a range of 15 centimeters and automatically react to attacks. According to the postmortem bite principle of this rattlesnake, scientists have invented many peripheral goods, which are widely used in the military.

The "hot eyes" of snakes such as rattlesnakes and Agkistrodon halys grow in a place called the buccal fossa between the eyes and the nostrils, which is generally 5 mm deep and only one centimeter long. The cheek pit is a trumpet-shaped, with the trumpet mouth facing forward, which is divided into two parts by a thin film. The inside part has a thin tube that communicates with the outside world, so the temperature inside is the same as that of the surrounding environment where the snake is located. And the outside part is a heat collector.

If there is a hot object in the direction of the trumpet mouth of the rattlesnake's hot eyes, infrared rays pass through here to the outer side of the film, which is obviously hotter than the inner side of the film, and the nerve endings covered in the film feel the temperature difference. Bioelectric current is generated and transmitted to the snake's brain. When the snake knows where there is a hot object ahead, the brain issues the corresponding "command" to capture the object.