Animal venoms have evolved over millions of years for prey capture and defense from
predators and rivals. Snake venoms, in particular, have evolved a wide diversity of peptides …

Peptides are recognized as being highly selective, potent and relatively safe as potential
therapeutics. Peptides isolated from the venom of different animals satisfy most of these …

Background The extant squamates (> 9400 known species of lizards and snakes) are one of
the most diverse and conspicuous radiations of terrestrial vertebrates, but no studies have …

Venoms have evolved on numerous occasions throughout the animal kingdom. These
'biochemical weapon systems' typically function to facilitate, or protect the producing animal …

Proportional and separate models able to apply different combination of substitution rate
matrix (SRM) and among‐site rate variation model (ASRVM) to each locus are frequently …

Snakes are limbless predators, and many species use venom to help overpower relatively
large, agile prey. Snake venoms are complex protein mixtures encoded by several …

We assembled a dataset of 192 carefully selected species—51 extinct and 141 extant—and
976 apomorphies distributed among 610 phenotypic characters to investigate the phylogeny …

Squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) are a pivotal group whose relationships have
become increasingly controversial. Squamates include> 9000 species, making them the …

Spiders are diverse, predatory arthropods that have inhabited Earth for around 400 million
years. They are well known for their complex venom systems that are used to overpower …

Throughout evolution, numerous proteins have been convergently recruited into the venoms
of various animals, including centipedes, cephalopods, cone snails, fish, insects (several …