Scientists discover Burmese pythons have never-before-seen cells that help them digest entire skeletons

Researchers found that specialized cells in Burmese pythons’ (Python bivittatus) intestinal lining process calcium from the bones of their meals. This helps explain how these predators digest whole prey.

The team published its findings June 25 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Burmese pythons typically dine on birds and small mammals, though they don’t need to eat every day. The snakes swallow their prey whole and spend several days digesting their meal before hunting again.

As part of digestion, pythons break down their prey’s bones. The bones provide necessary calcium in the snakes’ diet — but the pythons can’t use all the calcium. “We wanted to identify how they were able to process and limit this huge absorption of calcium through the intestinal wall,” study co-author Jehan-Hervé Lignot, a biologist at the University of Montpellier in France, said in a statement.

To examine how the snakes managed their calcium intake, the researchers fed Burmese pythons one of three diets: a regular diet of whole prey; a low-calcium diet with boneless prey; and a diet with boneless prey and a calcium supplement. After several meals, the team studied the effects of each regimen on the snakes’ intestines.

The team found that narrow, specialized cells in the pythons’ intestinal lining played a role in digesting bones. In the snakes that ate whole prey or boneless prey with a calcium supplement, these cells held particles made up of calcium, iron and phosphorus. But these particles weren’t present in snakes that only ate boneless prey.