pit cells

Burmese python, Python molurus bivittatus Robert Pope, a researcher at Indiana University South Bend and Jean-Herv/(c) Lignot from Louis Pasteur University in France have discovered a new type of cell--found only in the Burmese python's stomach--that helps the animal survive on only a few meals a year. A Burmese python, which can grow to more than 20 feet long, often eats twice its body weight in a single sitting. The snake takes down its food quickly, but the newly discovered cells, named pit cells by Pope and Lignot, allow the snake to absorb even the calcium from the bones of its prey. The…

Friends say he was a good neighbor who mostly kept to himself...Gray Squirrel, Sciurus Carolinensis A disgruntled squirrel stormed Evergreen Elementary School in San Jose, California and started biting anything in sight yesterday, injuring three people including two, 11-year old students and a teacher. The students who were preparing for a field trip made a costly error by leaving the outside-facing door to their classroom open, allowing the squirrel to infiltrate the unguarded facility. The school does not have a high squirrel population nor a history of squirrel attacks, said Will Ector, a…