Photograph by Joe McDonald, Corbis Python Hearts Double in Size—Now We Know Why Fats in the giant snakes' blood mysteriously balloon organs, study says.

Its blood vessels fill with 52 times the usual level of triglycerides, substances found in fats and oils. Such levels would clog mammal hearts with fat, but the pythons seem immune.

A substantial part of the trade in blood pythons in Indonesia is illegal and underreported, a new study has found. The study found no convincing evidence that the harvest of blood pythons in the ...

She extracted plasma from the blood of pythons that had just been fed, and placed it on rat heart cells. They grew in size. Could a protein be responsible?