A group of researchers stumbled upon a grisly scene during a field study in Macedonia last year: a dead nose-horned viper with a centipede's head sticking out of its ruptured abdomen.
After a post-mortem, the scientists think it's possible that the centipede quite literally eviscerated the snake from the inside out
The remnants of the death match were discovered on May 14, 2013, on Golem Grad, an island in Lake Prespa, and described last month in a brief report published in the journal Ecologica Montenegrina
Image: Arsovski et al Ecologica Montenegrina
The unfortunate nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) was a young female that stretched about 2 inches longer than the centipede (7.9 vs. 6 inches). But the centipede (Scolopendra cingulate) was actually heavier than the snake, tipping the scales at 114% of the snake's body weight (0.17 vs. 0.14 ounces). Read more...
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Centipede Claws Its Way Out of the Snake That Ate It
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