UC Professor Bruce Jayne poses with a Burmese python specimen with a 22-centimeter gape, right, compared to an even larger specimen with a 26-centimeter gape. Credit: Bruce Jayne UC Professor Bruce ...

Scientists have discovered a new type of cell that helps Burmese pythons digest the entire skeletons of their prey. Pythons can eat prey over 100% of their body mass, including deer and bobcats.

Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) don’t believe in waste, digesting not only the muscle and fat of their prey, but the bones as well. Where other predators might eat the flesh off the bone, or ...