# Animals recently found to be venomous **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600 "2017-02-23T23:41:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/21 "2017-02-24T17:57:35Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > To [borrow a quote](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19989024&postcount=75) from another recent thread, that is why we don’t let dictionary editors teach science classes. Except that there’s no real scientific basis for the distinction. Your first cite is to a popular magazine, not a scientific journal, and says there is a “traditional” distinction. The author is a journalist, not a scientist. Your second cite does not mention any such distinction. It calls snakes “venomous,” but it doesn’t say it’s wrong to call them poisonous. Your third cite is to a web comic, which I hardly think is a good source of scientific information. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/22 "2017-02-24T17:59:10Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > What about nettles? That would be a case in which a plant can be considered venomous. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/23 "2017-02-24T18:10:39Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Male platypuses are venomous. I seem to recall that that fact was relatively recently discovered (like in the 90s). They were known to be venomous in the 1950s at least (I just checked a reference from 1954) and I suspect it’s been known for much longer than that. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/24 "2017-02-24T18:35:51Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Except that there’s no real scientific basis for the distinction. > > Your first cite is to a popular magazine, not a scientific journal, and says there is a “traditional” distinction. The author is a journalist, not a scientist. > > Your second cite does not mention any such distinction. It calls snakes “venomous,” but it doesn’t say it’s wrong to call them poisonous. > > Your third cite is to a web comic, which I hardly think is a good source of scientific information. Okey-dokey. Is the _Handbook of Clinical Toxicology of Animal Venoms and Poisons, Volume 236_ by Julian White and Jurg Meier [scientific enough for you](https://books.google.com/books?id=vkZt0JXPSVkC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=%22venoms+are+produced+in+specialized+tissues+or+glands%22&source=bl&ots=hQVFNqmIhv&sig=8JMXizwvv00StINdNNPuXep5hgo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO7_2Mr6nSAhXs54MKHYQJCy8Q6AEIHDAB#v=onepage&q=%22venoms%20are%20produced%20in%20specialized%20tissues%20or%20glands%22&f=false)? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/25 "2017-02-24T18:36:11Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > What about nettles? Also [devil’s club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_club), aptly named _oplopanax horridus_, an all-too-familiar bane of the forested areas of the PNW and southern/southeastern parts of Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/26 "2017-02-24T18:44:53Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Male platypuses are venomous. I seem to recall that that fact was relatively recently discovered (like in the 90s). > [@Colibri](#): > > They were known to be venomous in the 1950s at least (I just checked a reference from 1954) and I suspect it’s been known for much longer than that. Yes, I’ve known that since I was a child, and I’m 59. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/27 "2017-02-24T18:59:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okey-dokey. Is the _Handbook of Clinical Toxicology of Animal Venoms and Poisons, Volume 236_ by Julian White and Jurg Meier [scientific enough for you](https://books.google.com/books?id=vkZt0JXPSVkC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=%22venoms+are+produced+in+specialized+tissues+or+glands%22&source=bl&ots=hQVFNqmIhv&sig=8JMXizwvv00StINdNNPuXep5hgo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO7_2Mr6nSAhXs54MKHYQJCy8Q6AEIHDAB#v=onepage&q=%22venoms%20are%20produced%20in%20specialized%20tissues%20or%20glands%22&f=false)? I’ll grant that scientists may sometimes redefine words with a long popular use and try to restrict them to narrower categories. This does not invalidate their popular usage. Other examples are, as I mentioned, trying to claim that it’s incorrect to call any small crawling creature a “bug” except for the true bugs, the Hemiptera, or claiming that it’s incorrect to refer to an ape as a monkey in popular use. It’s simply not correct to say it’s not permissible to refer to a snake as poisonous in popular usage. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/28 "2017-02-24T20:06:53Z")
When I was a kid, garter snakes were known to be venomous but to such a small degree they really weren’t going to be a problem. And this was _many_ decades ago. While a few kids in the neighborhood “knew” dragonflies were poisonous, the majority of us knew that was a myth. So we were generally not a gullible crowd on such matters. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/29 "2017-02-24T20:46:19Z")
I recently heard on the radio (P1, Sweden) that it was confirmed that the spines of the common perch (_Perca fluviatilis_) are slightly toxic. Something I, as a keen fisher, have long suspected… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/30 "2017-02-24T20:48:16Z")
Well, green dragonflies are poisonous. But red dragonflies are incendiary, blue dragonflies are galvanic, white dragonflies are gelid, and black dragonflies are acrid. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/31 "2017-02-24T21:07:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, green dragonflies are poisonous. But red dragonflies are incendiary Do green dragonflies ripen into red dragonflies? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/32 "2017-02-24T22:13:31Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > While a few kids in the neighborhood “knew” dragonflies were poisonous, the majority of us knew that was a myth. So we were generally not a gullible crowd on such matters. When I was a kid the story was that “darning needles” (as they were called) would sew your lips together if you cursed. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/33 "2017-02-25T00:24:15Z")
And I was similarly convinced at age 9 that jabbing my mortal enemy with a pencil would give him lead poisoning. All it got me was underpants full of gravel. Not sure about all lizards, but the[varanid line](http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/venom-research-badmouths-goannas/2005/11/17/1132016892739.html), which includes goannas and iguanas, was shown to produce venom in 2005. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/34 "2017-02-25T02:37:33Z")
I’m always baffled when people pull Shakespeare into the poisonous/venomous debate, talk about an appeal to tradition, FFS. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/35 "2017-02-25T02:39:07Z")
Hmmm. I thought echidnas were venomous, but with a venom too mild to bother humans. Apparently, a better answer is that they used to be venomous, but aren’t anymore, the venom gland having evolved to serve a new purpose: > **[How the echidna lost its venom](https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2013/11/13/how-the-echidna-lost-its-venom.html)** > > The spur on the hind leg of echidnas was once venomous, based on new research at the University of Sydney. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/36 "2017-02-25T11:40:23Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Male platypuses are venomous. I seem to recall that that fact was relatively recently discovered (like in the 90s). (They were always known to be venomous by the local people.) In the 90’s the venom was isolated, identified and purified for study. It’s not an ordinary toxin, since it’s used for defeating rivals, not killing and eating or defense. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/37 "2017-02-25T13:40:20Z")
**outlierrn** , to what else would one appeal when discussing language? Words mean what they do for no reason other than a tradition of them having meant that in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/38 "2017-02-25T18:33:17Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > I’m always baffled when people pull Shakespeare into the poisonous/venomous debate, talk about an appeal to tradition, FFS. I’m baffled as to why you would be baffled by that. Shakespeare provides an example of how the word was once used. As I said, that broader usage is somewhat archaic. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/39 "2017-02-25T19:15:10Z")
So I can still call Pluto a planet, then? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600/40 "2017-02-25T20:07:08Z")
Nobody’s going to stop you. But if you do call Pluto a planet, it would only make sense to call Eris one, too, and possibly Quaoar, Sedna, and a number of other outer-system objects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-recently-found-to-be-venomous/780600.md?page=3)