July 24th, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in Uncategorized

Scientists working in Antarctica have discovered four new species of octopus, armed with a cold-resistant venom. Researcher Bryan Fry explains:

We found that venom can work at sub-zero temperatures. It was quite remarkable to find how well octopuses have adapted to Antarctic life,” Fry said.

There was a great diversity of species, ranging from octopuses that were two inches long to giant ones, he said.

“Evolutionary selection pressures slowly changed their venom, which allowed them to spread into colder and colder waters and eventually spread into super-cold waters,” Fry said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

“We want to see what cool and wonderful new venom components we can find out of these venoms that would be useful in drug development,” he said.

“Nature has designed a perfect killing weapon … they have such incredibly accurate activity that there has to be a way to harness that. To tweak it or modify it or just use one little chunk.”

The previously-undiscovered venoms could be a boon to medical science. Snake venom serves as the basis of some hypertension medications, and diabetes medicines have been derived from the saliva of the gila monster.

via: Reuters