When carnivores that roam our Earth feast gleefully on the flesh of their prey, the hard, unpalatable bones are usually left behind.

But snakes can unhinge their jaws to swallow their meals whole – and, unlike other animals that pass or regurgitate the bones they cannot break down, the skeletons swallowed by snakes do not re-emerge in a recognizable format.

Exactly how snake bodies pull off this astonishing feat of bone digestion has been unclear. Now, scientists have found a previously unknown type of cell in the intestines of Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) that appears to enable them to completely and utterly absorb the skeletons of their prey.

These cells help process large amounts of calcium and phosphorus that would otherwise overload the snake's system.