I Love Snakes
There's a common misconception that Belcher's sea snake, also called the faint-banded sea snake, is the most venomous variety of snake in the world. This is false, however, as the actual titleholder is the inland taipan, while the black-banded sea snake has the record for most venomous aquatic variety.
So where did the myth come from that the Belcher's has the most potent venom? It has to do with how its administered. The toxicity of snake venom is measured in something called median lethal dosage, which basically means the average lowest amount of venom that is required to be fatal. There's four ways in which the venom might be administered, and those are subcutaneous (underneath the skin, and most common of the four because it's most relevant to an actual bite), intravenous (injected directly into the vein, and second most common), intramuscular (injected into the muscle, and the third most common), and intraperitoneal (injection into the peritoneum, also called the abdominal cavity, and the least common). Depending on which injection method is used, the medial lethal dose can differ significantly because less venom is required to be fatal.
The venom of snakes that commonly bite people, such as carpet vipers or puff adders, is usually tested in all four methods, or at the very least they're tested subcutaneously and intravenously since those are the most relevant types of injection compared to a real snakebite and not in a lab experiment. But Belcher's sea snake is not often encountered and it's almost ridiculously rare for a person to get bitten by one, so its venom has only been tested with intramuscular injection, which produces a far lower median lethal dose than a subcutaneous injection since the myotoxins in the venom come into direct contact with muscle tissue immediately upon envemonation. This causes people to think that Belcher's sea snake possesses venom that is far more deadly than it really is, because the median lethal dosage number looks incredibly small and thus appears to be the strongest. But when measured subcutaneously, as most snake venom is, that number goes way up, showing that it is not "100 times as toxic as the inland taipan" as was erroneously stated in a world records book.
So where did the myth come from that the Belcher's has the most potent venom? It has to do with how its administered. The toxicity of snake venom is measured in something called median lethal dosage, which basically means the average lowest amount of venom that is required to be fatal. There's four ways in which the venom might be administered, and those are subcutaneous (underneath the skin, and most common of the four because it's most relevant to an actual bite), intravenous (injected directly into the vein, and second most common), intramuscular (injected into the muscle, and the third most common), and intraperitoneal (injection into the peritoneum, also called the abdominal cavity, and the least common). Depending on which injection method is used, the medial lethal dose can differ significantly because less venom is required to be fatal.
The venom of snakes that commonly bite people, such as carpet vipers or puff adders, is usually tested in all four methods, or at the very least they're tested subcutaneously and intravenously since those are the most relevant types of injection compared to a real snakebite and not in a lab experiment. But Belcher's sea snake is not often encountered and it's almost ridiculously rare for a person to get bitten by one, so its venom has only been tested with intramuscular injection, which produces a far lower median lethal dose than a subcutaneous injection since the myotoxins in the venom come into direct contact with muscle tissue immediately upon envemonation. This causes people to think that Belcher's sea snake possesses venom that is far more deadly than it really is, because the median lethal dosage number looks incredibly small and thus appears to be the strongest. But when measured subcutaneously, as most snake venom is, that number goes way up, showing that it is not "100 times as toxic as the inland taipan" as was erroneously stated in a world records book.
26-30, F
