Is it true that snakes swallow elephants? What's so special about the body structure of snakes?

There is a folk saying that "the human heart is insufficient and the snake swallows the elephant". They mainly mean to describe a person who is pushing his luck and divorced from reality. It's like a snake. If you want to swallow an elephant, it is completely impossible. So, scientifically speaking, can snakes really not swallow elephants?

Can a snake swallow an elephant? Actually, it's not impossible to say that 100%, because if it's an ancient troll-titanoboa, it should be possible for them to swallow an elephant. After all, their length is 12 meters and their weight is above 1 ton.

According to the scientific research on animal fossils, experts also found that Titan Python mainly preys on large animals, and its components are giant crocodiles or some large small turtles (similar to turtles).

Therefore, if Titan Pythons were not extinct from the earth for some reason more than 5 billion years later, they might have swallowed an Asian elephant, or, more appropriately, a young Asian elephant.

However, for today's pythons, it is never possible to swallow elephants. Because the large and medium-sized microorganisms on the earth today belong to the ancient "small and medium population", of course, it is a dream for a snake to swallow an elephant.

So, even if a snake can't swallow an elephant at present, can it swallow a cow? Needless to say, it is reported that in Thailand, not long ago, a boa constrictor really swallowed a cow, and the result was terrible.

Thai python swallows a cow According to a Thai media report, in a small village under the jurisdiction of Pengshiluo, Thailand, a farmer noticed that a calf in his home was missing, so he gradually began to look for it. As a result, he found a boa constrictor lying around his house, and it was dead.

What's even more frightening is that this boa constrictor's stomach has actually cracked, and the hoof of its calf has come out from the boa constrictor's stomach, which looks very scary.

It can be inferred that this python chose this calf as its prey in the process of foraging. After some entanglement, this calf was eaten by this python.

As we all know, although this python is 4 meters long, even the calf is too big for it, which makes it difficult to digest and absorb after swallowing this calf, and the calf is not completely bitten and swallowed, and it is likely to be swallowed alive.

So the calf also broke free in the python's stomach, which finally caused the python's abdomen to be unbearable and was finally cracked by the calf. Because of greed, it tried to swallow a cow. As a result, it died.

It can be seen from this that it is not easy or difficult for everyone's snake species to swallow an elephant, even a calf. Of course, snakes can't swallow elephants.

However, it's actually amazing here. Why do you say that? You should understand that snakes are long and thin, even pythons are thick, and there are still some differences compared with a "quadruped". So, how do they swallow small animals much bigger than themselves?

What is unique about the body structure of snakes? If you want to swallow all the prey, the first step is to open your mouth. After all, all your prey will enter your stomach from your mouth.

Are snake lips really that big? Of course, there is no doubt. Scholars' research shows that snakes have a unique body structure, and their lips can stretch 130 degrees. What does this mean? They can swallow prey ten times bigger than themselves. Of course, even if the cow is quite big, it can still enter the snake's stomach according to its lips.

In addition, snake skin is very elastic. When prey enters the body, it will immediately wrap them firmly, and then gradually develop digestion and absorption. Some people say that if the python accidentally swallows it, it can take out a knife to scratch the snake's abdomen and escape. In fact, it can't be done at all, because after swallowing it, you will find that the snake's skin just controls its prey, and because of lack of oxygen, its gastric juice is extremely corrosive, and it will die completely in a few minutes at most.

Of course, if you want to escape from the snake's body, one is eaten alive, and the other is a prey much bigger than the snake. For example, once a snake ate an angular antelope car, but its abdomen was pierced by a horn, and it also died.

Speaking of snakes, if you swallow a large and medium-sized prey, you don't have to eat for a month, because it must be digested and absorbed slowly, and at this time, the "fighting power" of snakes is the thinnest. If it encounters risks, it will also choose to swallow its prey and then run away.