Blink and you'll miss it.

Snake bites have always been the stuff of nightmares, but Australian researchers have revealed in fresh and terrifying detail just how different venomous reptiles strike at their prey.

In the largest study of its kind, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Monash University researchers Alistair Evans and Silke Clueren used high-speed cameras to capture 36 species at the moment they went in for the kill.

Their movements as they lunged at cylinders of warm, muscle-like medical gel - often too fast for human eyes to see - were then reconstructed in three dimensions.

"In many ways, it's terrifying. You've got these massive fangs, sometimes they're dripping venom, and it all happens faster than the blink of an eye," Professor Evans told AAP.

Considered

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