Mark Margres and Samuel Hirst studied rattlesnakes across 11 uninhabited islands in the Gulf of California.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by the peer-reviewed journal article (Evolution, 2025) itself along with university press release and multiple independent science news outlets. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists | tier=silver indep_score=0.963 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- What rattlesnake venom can teach us about evolution: New USF study | ScienceDaily (seed:animals_and_wildlife)
- https://www.usf.edu/news/2025/what-rattlesnake-venom-can-teach-us-about-evolution.aspx (corroboration)
- https://academic.oup.com/evolut/article/79/8/1419/8118642 (corroboration)
- https://www.earth.com/news/rattlesnakes-develop-simpler-venom-when-living-on-bigger-islands/ (corroboration)
- https://www.popsci.com/environment/rattlesnake-venom-evolution/ (corroboration)