Scientific American, which concluded ‘the breath is very
fetid....it is supposed that this is one way in which the
monster catches insects and small animals’, Dr George
Goodfellow of Tombstone (who was notable, amongst
other things, for treating Virgil and Morgan Earp after
both were wounded in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral)
conducted early experiments. The good doctor allowed
himself to be bitten by one of his lizards, and although he
immediately became ill, made a complete recovery after
five days. As late as 1907, he described the Gila Monster
which has two grooves to conduct the venom.
Helodermatids lack the ability to forcibly inject venom,
which must be ‘milked’ from the glands by jaw
movements such as chewing. Again, unlike most
venomous snakes, the venom of helodermatid lizards
plays little part in subduing prey items, which are either
inanimate (eggs) or helpless (nestlings). It is, however,
critical to defence. Whilst foraging above ground, Gila
Monsters and Mexican Beaded Lizards are vulnerable to
predators since, despite their armoured skin, they are
A synthetic version of a peptide isolated
from Gila Monster venom is now used by
millions of diabetics to control blood sugar
and assist with weight loss.... And it doesn' t
end there.
as ‘non-venomous’ and ‘innocuous’, notwithstanding a
body of evidence which was building up. In 1913, the
matter was decided when the Carnegie Institution
published a definitive text including diverse research into
the composition and effects of the venom. relatively slow-moving and cannot sprint to safety. Once
a helodermatid lizard manages to lock its jaws onto a
potential threat, it holds on for grim death, chomping
down to introduce more venom into the tissues, and
rapidly inducing severe pain, along with other symptoms.
Unlike snakes, in which the venom glands are located in
the upper jaw, those of helodermatids are situated on
either side of the lower jaw. These modified salivary
glands drain to the base of specialised teeth, each of The Gila Monster may have become notorious on the
American frontier, but helodermatid lizards were already
entrenched in the culture of many indigenous peoples of
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