• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Venomous Mammal

Venomous Mammal

March 20, 2018
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/180320_sciup_venom.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) is one of the only extant venomous mammals. (Eladio Fernandez, Caribbean Nature Photography)
Hispaniolan solenodon. (Eladio Fernandez, Caribbean Nature Photography)

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Saving an oddball mammal. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

The solenodon is a rare and bizarre creature native to the Caribbean islands.  It’s one of the few venomous mammals in the world; looks like a foot-long shrew; and has a mobile snout that pivots on a ball-and-socket joint.  In the journal GigaScience, University of Puerto Rico geneticist Juan Carlos Martinez-Cruzado and his colleagues have published the genome of the animal. He says they’re especially interested in the genetics of its venom, which could have medical uses, and its unusually acute hearing.

JUAN CARLOS MARTINEZ-CRUZADO (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez):

We may learn more about which genes are necessary for the development of the ear.

HIRSHON:

He says Solenodons are virtually unchanged since they first evolved nearly eighty million years ago, and their nocturnal, burrowing lifestyle may have helped them survive the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Story by Bob Hirshon

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Genetics & Evolution, Wildlife
Previous Post:Ocean Trash Hotspots
Next Post:Fire Water

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Cat Video
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • NASA
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Image of computer screen depicting an orange cat with a variety of alphanumeric scientific data superimposed on the the screen.
Spotted skunk performing handstand to threaten predators

Copyright © 2025 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos