The text mentioned several specializations that allow vipers to eat large prey. The large, heavy-bodied African vipers in the genus Bitis, such as the puff adder (Bitis arietans), provide particularly clear examples of these specializations

Question

List as many of these specializations as you can, and explain how they work together.

Answer 1

Vipers employ venom and they can bite and release their prey, minimizing the chance that a struggling prey item will injure the snake. The long fangs of vipers inject venom deep into the prey, allowing enzymes in the venom to start the process of digestion from inside the prey while the enzymes of the stomach attack the prey from the outside, thus speeding digestion and preventing the bacteria in the gut of the prey from putrefying it. (If prey putrefies, the snake must regurgitate it, and in the process it loses not only that meal but also any meal that it ate after that one.) Finally, the thick bodies of these large vipers can accommodate a large prey item, and the use of rectilinear locomotion means that a viper does not have to throw its body into curves—an action that might be difficult when the snake had consumed a large prey item.