Go to our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/veritasium to get matched with a professional therapist who will listen and help.

▀▀▀
Huge thanks to the Australian Reptile Park for having us over to film – special thanks to Jake Meney for showing us the spiders and Caitlin Vine for organizing the shoot. https://www.reptilepark.com.au

Huge thanks to Dr Timothy Jackson with his help and answering our questions.

Thanks to Seqirus Australia for providing B-roll footage of the antivenom production process.


▀▀▀
References:

Pineda, S. S., Sollod, B. L., Wilson, D., Darling, A., Sunagar, K., Undheim, E. A., ... & King, G. F. (2014). Diversification of a single ancestral gene into a successful toxin superfamily in highly venomous Australian funnel-web spiders. BMC genomics, 15(1), 1-16 - https://ve42.co/Pineda2014

Isbister, G. K., Gray, M. R., Balit, C. R., Raven, R. J., Stokes, B. J., Porges, K., ... & Fisher, M. M. (2005). Funnel-web spider bite: a systematic review of recorded clinical cases. Medical journal of Australia, 182(8), 407-411 - https://ve42.co/Isbister2005

Herzig, V., Sunagar, K., Wilson, D. T., Pineda, S. S., Israel, M. R., Dutertre, S., ... & Fry, B. G. (2020). Australian funnel-web spiders evolved human-lethal δ-hexatoxins for defense against vertebrate predators. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(40), 24920-24928 - https://ve42.co/Herzig2020

Nicholson, G. M., & Graudins, A. (2002). Spiders of medical importance in the Asia–Pacific: Atracotoxin, latrotoxin and related spider neurotoxins. Clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology, 29(9), 785-794 - https://ve42.co/Nicholson2002

Fletcher, J. I., Chapman, B. E., Mackay, J. P., Howden, M. E., & King, G. F. (1997). The structure of versutoxin (δ-atracotoxin-Hv1) provides insights into the binding of site 3 neurotoxins to the voltage-gated sodium channel. Structure, 5(11), 1525-1535 - https://ve42.co/Fletcher1997

Australian Reptile Park. (2022). Snake and Spider First Aid - https://ve42.co/ARPFirstAid

The Australian Museum. (20 ). Spider facts - https://ve42.co/SpiderFacts


▀▀▀
Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
Orlando Bassotto, Tj Steyn, meg noah, Bernard McGee, KeyWestr, Amadeo Bee, TTST, Balkrishna Heroor, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Anton Ragin, Benedikt Heinen, Diffbot, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Mac Malkawi, Juan Benet, Ubiquity Ventures, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Michael Krugman, and Sam Lutfi


▀▀▀
Written by Katie Barnshaw & Derek Muller
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Filmed by Petr Lebedev, Derek Muller and Jason Tran
Animation by Ivy Tello, Jakub Misiek and Fabio Albertelli
Neuron animation by Reciprocal Space – https://www.reciprocal.space
Additional video/photos supplied from Getty Images, Pond5
B-roll supplied by Seqirus Australia
Music from Epidemic Sound
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, Emily Zhang & Katie Barnshaw