Dr Full and his colleagues have since identified similar behaviour in other animals with hooklike toes that are good at escaping pursuit: geckos, for example.
They also shared some kinda lizard-y adaptations, like skin that sheds, feet and ankles that are specialized for running over rough ground, and a hooked foot bone to help them climb.
While hunting, Titanoboa may have masked its giant body in layers of mud and murky water, slowly ambushing its prey, clamping down its hooked teeth, and choking the life from their bodies.
We have differences correlated not only with one sex, but with that short period when the reproductive system is active, as in the nuptial plumage of many birds, and in the hooked jaws of the male salmon.
He is very dangerous, a virulent fighter encased in a ridged, scaly shell from which he takes his name, with a fierce hooked beak at the end of his head and long neck that can make mincemeat of an enemy.
Audrey's nose was strangely hooked and blood was streaming from it down her arm. Luke was shaking but I couldn't see any blood. I had a gash on my forearm from where the seat's frame had caught hold of me.