在夜晚，窝器能让蛇类“看到”捕食者或者猎物的图像——正如红外摄影机一样——赋予他们一个独特的额外感官。

At night, the pit organs allow snakes to "see" an image of their predator or prey-- as an infrared camera does-- giving them a unique extra sense.

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研究者们推断解决窝器的热量探测问题的一个好方法就是将三叉神经节和背根神经结做比较。

The researchers reasoned that a good way to home in on the organ's molecular heat detectors would be to compare the trigeminal ganglia with the dorsal root ganglia.

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“因此，蛇类通过陷窝器进行辐射供热的结构来探测红外信号，而不是靠光化学转换。”研究显示。

"Thus, snakes detect infrared signals through a mechanism involving radiant heating of the pit organ, rather than photochemical transduction," says the study.

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