Why are mammals rarely poisoned?

Because when mammals use poison, their own condition will also be greatly damaged.

Because mammals are so large nowadays, they don't need to be poisoned to kill their prey.

Large creatures are often non-venomous, and their size and strength determine that they can easily hunt prey and defend against enemies without venom, so they generally choose to abandon the use of poison in evolution. Since the extinction of the dinosaurs, birds and mammals have risen to become the overlords of the earth, and their size is also increasing, so some species have given up the use of poison.

Of course, size alone does not fully explain the fact that most mammals and birds are not poisonous, after all, there are still many kinds of small mammals and birds, so why are they basically not poisonous?

The key is body temperature, mammals and birds are homeotherms, and the rest of the animals belong to ectotherms, compared to ectotherms, homeotherms in order to maintain their body temperature, have a faster metabolism, which also leads to mammals and birds, need to eat more frequently to replenish the body's energy consumption. After a full meal of a crocodile or python, it can even stop eating for a year, but no mammal or bird can do this, frequent eating triggers frequent hunting, but the recovery of toxins takes time, because the recovery of toxins can not keep up with the frequency of homeothermic animal eating, then more and more hunting will no longer use toxins, and once the toxins can be hunted successfully, toxins will be completely reduced to dispensable chicken ribs, and eventually abandoned by evolution.

In fact, when mammals and birds choose the evolutionary direction of constant temperature, investing more energy in maintaining body temperature in order to achieve faster reaction speed and stronger endurance, they will inevitably choose to give up some things, and toxins are one of them.

In the end, the absence of toxins in most mammals and birds depends on the results of natural selection, after all, natural selection, only the fittest can survive.

The emergence of poisonous species proves that it is not that mammals or birds cannot evolve toxins, but that in the long history of evolution, toxins, which have been used in the hands of other species, have been abandoned by mammals and birds. Even if the existing poisonous mammals and birds are relatively marginal species that do not flourish, what is the reason for their evolutionary choice?

The prevailing view is that body size and body temperature have contributed to the eventual evolution of birds and mammals to abandon toxins.

There are also a few mammals that are poisonous, such as male platypus, vampire bats, groove-toothed rats, and slow loris.

Because mammals are strong enough, they don't need poison, and insects and reptiles are relatively weak in physical and mental power, so they evolved poison to survive.

Just as in ancient times people would put poison on arrowheads and daggers, but not on axes and hammers.

For large mammals, whether predatory or herbivorous, venom is not worth it.

Moreover, mammals, large and small, are unlikely to possess defensive venom like many fish and amphibians.

Like the platypus, relying on the stinger to defend is actually not very effective, because there is a way to crack it - you see, even if the defense is perfect like a porcupine, it may not be hunted - so such a stinger is more reliable for intraspecific struggles.

A fish like a pufferfish, unless it encounters a human, other animals must die if they eat it, which is an efficient venom defense. What's the key? The whole body is poisonous (at least if you eat me, I will definitely poison you), and it is very toxic.

But for warm-blooded animals like mammals (and birds) that have a deadly metabolism, it's an unbearable burden.

In fact, "why did mammals give up venom" is still a question of "why didn't so-and-so ability evolve".

The venom given up by mammals is because it can find more suitable ways to survive, venom is only a small part of survival, and it is more by adapting to the environment, and slowly finding a way to survive that is suitable for itself.

So for mammals, giving up venom is the ultimate choice for environmental adaptation.

Why did mammals give up venom?

I feel that mammals may have a little low ability to distinguish and can't distinguish too clearly, so they are afraid that the venom will poison their offspring and their children, so they slowly improve the function of venom through evolution and Jinliang, but there is no more.

In this way, the function of venom is abandoned, and the poisoning and killing of his children is reduced, which may also be the result of animal evolution, animal improvement and animal improvement.

1.Due to body temperature and body strength, mammals have given up venom in the course of evolution.

2.The embodiment of love, mammals are very protective of their offspring, so they have given up venom in the process of evolution.

3.The principle of natural selection for survival of the fittest has allowed mammals to give up venom in the process of evolution.

It's better to understand me. It is a relatively advanced animal among humans. They feed the next generation through breastfeeding. If there is venom in the body, then it will cause harm to the next generation. So in the process of evolution, mammals slowly. It wets the venom function.

The reason why mammals give up their venom is caused by changes in the environment, and species that evolve in different environments will change and become more adaptable.

Not all mammals are not poisonous, and there are not no poisonous mammals, but there are only a few species, such as the platypus, which everyone is familiar with, which is a poisonous mammal. In the long evolutionary history, most of the killer features of toxins, which have been used by other species, have been abandoned by mammals and birds.

Venom has a downside: it consumes energy.

Venom is either used to attack (defense with attack is also an attack) or defense. If it's for defense, then you have to make sure that most of the body has it, or it's useless. For larger animals, this is too much to do.

Venom has a characteristic: it is relatively inefficient at killing prey, and even the most awesome venom cannot kill prey as quickly as tearing off the spine.

For large carnivores, they have always hunted large herbivorous mammals, which are either fast (horses, etc.), large (elephants, etc.), or defensive (living cattle, carved rodents of fossil species), and you have to rely on strategy to deal with them, or ambushes, or cooperative groups, and at the very least, you have to run faster. It took a strong brain to do this, and so the stupid ancient carnivores became extinct. has such an efficient **, why do you need an inefficient venom?

Besides, to deal with large prey, the amount of venom must be large, the poison must be strong, and it must be killed immediately, and for large prey, it is too difficult for the predator to make a venom that satisfies this condition; If the venom works slowly and the prey dies slowly, there is no guarantee that the prey will be yours in the end, which is too worthwhile.

This is the result of long-term evolution, because mammals have a high IQ and are large, and do not need venom to protect themselves, and can quickly escape when encountering danger

Let's start with the history of mammals, which are warm-blooded vertebrates that breathe air with their lungs, and are named because they can lactate their larvae through their mammary glands.

Mammals began to appear on the stage of nature's history during the Late Jurassic period.

Advantages of Venom.

What are the benefits of using Venom? Quite simply, it means that you are able to hunt larger prey in a small size, which is undoubtedly the most effective way to survive for animals that have not evolved to be large and strong.

According to the fossil research of archaeological research, in fact, most of the early mammals were poisonous, because the early mammals were smaller than other creatures in the same period, and they were homeothermic animals, with fast metabolism, they could hunt bigger and more food with poison, and they could survive better.

Disadvantages of Venom.

So why don't mammals use poison all the time? As latecomers, we already know that eventually mammals became the protagonists of history, the highest form of life on earth. So why is Venom abandoned by most mammals?

If we think about venom production, most animals that use poison face a problem: that is, the accumulation of venom! Either it is the production of glands in the body with special functional differentiation, or it is food enrichment.

Both methods face the fact that venom takes time to build up, and seizures take time, and venom is effective for smaller, slower-moving prey, but less powerful for larger, faster prey. Therefore, this method of predation is undoubtedly inefficient for mammals that have slowly evolved to be larger and have stronger limbs!

In other words, the use of poison is not as clean as a slap or bite to death, and we carefully look at the animals that use poison are quiet, slow metabolism creatures, and mammals have a faster metabolism and a developed nervous system also brings strong strength and agile response, compared with the efficiency of poison can no longer meet the needs of mammals.

Because mammals are already powerful and can kill many animals and insects without venom, and partly because mammals are homeotherms

Mammals are a process of evolutionary development in the animal kingdom, and they carry very little, if not superfluous, in themselves.

Mammals, as homeothermic animals, have a fairly high metabolic rate. In the early days, some small mammals had a hard time capturing food because of their limited strength, but if they used poison, they could easily catch food, so toxicity was very important for mammals at that time. But with the extinction of the dinosaurs, mammals gradually became the overlords of the earth, and while they grew in size, venom could play a smaller and smaller role.

That's why mammals give up venom.

In order to better breastfeed their offspring and prevent their offspring from ingesting venom during breastfeeding, this is one of the inevitable choices in the evolutionary process.

Survival of the fittest.

Mammal. Gave up Venom. It is a manifestation that survives in nature. Get a variety of ways to survive better. Giving up Venom is one of them.

Therefore, the abandonment of venom by mammals is actually an important manifestation of the survival of the fittest.

The inevitable choice, in order to survive, the survival of the fittest by natural selection, this is evolution.

Releasing toxicity requires a change in body temperature, and mammals are homeothermic animals.

This is because the poisonous ones must be cold-blooded, not the body temperature of mammals.

Mammals are mostly homeothermic.

Because mammals are basically larger, they don't need to be used to protect themselves, use poison or anything.

Large mammals do not need venom to hunt or protect themselves because of their large size.

In fact, mammals consume a lot of energy, and it takes a lot of energy to maintain a constant temperature.

Venom also requires energy, mammals don't have that much energy.

This is because mammals do not secrete venom in order to maintain their body temperature.

It takes a lot of energy to make venom.

Why are mammals rarely poisonous? That's a good question indeedWith the exception of some mammals, such as platypus, most mammals are non-venomous, why? If large mammals don't need venom for predation and self-protection because of their large size, why are small mammals rarely poisonous?

Maybe we can easily name many poisonous vertebrates, but when it comes to mammals, there aren't many that are truly poisonous. Of the more than 5,000 species of mammals, only about 10 are venomous, and these animals remain in relatively marginal branches.

The relatively accepted view of this change is that mammals, as warm-blooded animals, have a relatively high metabolic rate. In the early days, some small mammals had difficulty catching food due to their limited strength. However, if poison was used, it was easy to capture food, so toxicity was very important for mammals at the time.

However, with the extinction of the dinosaurs, mammals gradually became the overlords of the planet. As the volume increases, the venom becomes less and less effective.

As the mammalian grows in size, the food it eats is getting bigger and bigger, and it needs more and more venom, and the capture of food can use not only venom but also great strength. That's when Venom's shortcomings come into play. Once venom is used, it cannot be recovered for a long time.

If we rely on venom for a long time, I'm afraid many animals will starve to death, because the next time the venom is enough to kill a large enough animal, we are afraid to wait weeks, but not many animals can withstand such a long wait. The only exception is the Komodo dragon, which is venomous, but it takes a few weeks after poisoning before it can be used again. Apparently, the toxicity to large animals has gradually degenerated.