Opossums get a bad wrap in the animal kingdom. They're not as scary as sharks, regal as tigers, cute as mice, or even wonderfully strange as platypuses. They're not fast, strong or graceful, and they sure as hell aren't nice to look at. And why the hell are they hanging upside down all the time? And do they really need to have teeth that look like that? Christ! It's hard to give these pointy-faced, garbage-noshing marsupials the respect they deserve.
Until today. Because we're here to shed light on their total—sleeper—bad-assery. Turns out possums are highly resistant to venom; whether it be snakes, spiders, scorpions or jelly fish, these scrappy bastards have the ability to neutralize what would be deadly for almost every other creature on earth. Including us of course.
According to an article in the Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins (there's something for everybody!):
...currently, the use of antivenoms is the only available treatment for envenomation caused by venomous animals namely, snake, scorpion, spider, tick and jelly fish. Antivenoms are generally produced in large animals, mostly in horses. A large percentage of the population is allergic to horse proteins.
Using high-pressure liquid chromatography (which basically means a series of lab tests that "separate mixtures") they found that possums possess a small protein which they pithily named the Lethal Toxin-Neutralizing Factor (LTNF).
While most of us other lowly beasts would use our antibodies to attack an assault of venom, possums use their already-present protein—LTNF—to neutralize the poison.
While this study solely focused on a possum LTNF's ability to neutralize venom in mice—which was a complete success (all the mice survived lethal doses of all kinds of venom)—scientists believe "opossum serum has potential as a universal therapy for envenomation caused by animals, plants and bacteria."
Hot dog damn! Now I can traipse over to the Amazon rainforest without fear of dying like this poor bitch from The Mist. (That is some terrifying Prehistoric bug shit.)
And yes! Possums really do "play dead" when threatened. Not only do they bare their teeth, foam at the mouth and lie stock-still for 40 minutes! they also excrete a "dead" smell from ass-glands to really get their point across.
Image: ThinkStock
