00:00If I asked you to close your eyes and picture a venomous creature, what would you come up
00:08with?
00:09One of these?
00:10Maybe even this?
00:11Well, according to researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia, this guy is not
00:15only highly venomous, but new research has revealed it evolved its venom with the help
00:19from some tiny little friends.
00:21This is a caterpillar, or the larva of what's commonly called the flannel moth.
00:25According to the new study, toxins from bacteria could be responsible for having aided the
00:29development of the creature's painful stings via a process called horizontal gene transfer.
00:35The caterpillars actually sting via venomous spurs hidden beneath their luxurious coats.
00:39According to the researchers, it's so painful it's been described as walking on hot coals
00:44or the worst pain a patient has ever experienced.
00:47While researchers were investigating why it was so painful, they noticed it was quite
00:51different from other venomous caterpillars.
00:53It works in a very similar way to bacterial toxin, binding to a cell's surface and eventually
00:57ripping holes in it.
00:58But the researchers concluding the bacteria must have passed it along, writing,
01:02The venom in these caterpillars has evolved via the transfer of genes from bacteria more
01:07than 400 million years ago.
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