In the first 24 hours after a python devours its massive prey, its heart grows 25%, its cardiac tissue softens dramatically, and the organ squeezes harder and harder to more than double its pulse.

Understanding how snakes remodel their hearts after a large meal may help develop new cardiovascular medicines. (iStock / Getty Images Plus) Pythons are famous for swallowing enormous meals ...

Understanding which genes are involved in regulating the python's rapid heart muscle changes may have implications for treating cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the heart muscle, she said. "This ...