Quote:
Originally Posted by moosenoose  A snake that size wouldn't have a slightest problem eating an adult human. The "shoulders" bit is a bigger myth than the snake not being able to eat a person IMHO. Perhaps it is told to help little jungle kiddies sleep better at night or something  The pressure exerted by one of these animals is similar to the weight of a school bus (and has been proven so) being placed on top of you....please tell me that it's not possible under that sort of weight for bones to be either crushed or severely dislodged  ......so whatta ya reckon??? Still not possible??  |
I'm not sure about specifics (ie, school bus as opposed to any other bus
), but the pressure that a large python is capable of exerting is enormous. However, the snake never intentionally uses constriction as a means of crushing the bones and internal organs - asphyxiation is the cause of death in almost all cases.
I'm not sure what I think about the shoulders dealy, but I'd be inclined to think, imagining the way in which snakes work their way down the body, that it would be extremely difficult for a snake to expand its jaw from the width of the neck to the width of the shoulders. Pythons most often rely on the animal's own contours (hence a snake's instinct to swallow head first 9/10 times), using their teeth to work their way along the prey, their ligamentous jaw expanding as the body does, as opposed to a kind of muscular expansion of the jaw that would enable them to just slide over everything at once (such an action would result in enormous energy expenditure, and this is something ectotherms don't need).
I could be wrong though, snakes (and reptiles in general) manage some pretty extraordinary stuff. 2 things of which I am relatively sure, however: the snake is unlikely to swallow a person feet first (it's not their nature), and certainly not because they want to avoid the rapid change in width between the neck and the shoulders; a snake will assess prey on its size and vulnerability - generally not its shape.
The true test though - anyone want to sleep in the anaconda pit and let us know how it goes ? Take a polaroid for us
