New species of snake capable of sideways strikes discovered in West Africa - FaunaClassifieds
FaunaClassifieds  
  Tired of those Google and InfoLink ads? Upgrade Your Membership!
  Inside FaunaClassifieds » Photo Gallery  
 

Go Back   FaunaClassifieds > Reptile & Amphibian - General Discussion Forums > Herps In The News

Notices

Herps In The News Local or national articles where reptiles or amphibians have made it into the news media. Please cite sources.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-11-2019, 12:19 PM   #1
bcr229
New species of snake capable of sideways strikes discovered in West Africa

https://www.sciencenutshell.com/new-...n-west-africa/

New species of snake capable of sideways strikes discovered in West Africa

by Science Nutshell · March 11, 2019

Following a series of recent surveys in north-western Liberia and south-eastern Guinea, an international team of researchers found three stiletto snakes which were later identified as a species previously unknown to science.

The discovery, published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution by the team of Dr Mark-Oliver Roedel from the Natural History Museum, Berlin, provides further evidence for the status of the western part of the Upper Guinea forest zone as a center of rich and endemic biodiversity.

Curiously, stiletto snakes have unusual skulls and venom delivery system, allowing them to attack and stab sideways with a fang sticking out of the corner of their mouths. While most of these burrowing snakes are not venomous enough to kill a human – even though some are able to inflict serious tissue necrosis – this behaviour makes them impossible to handle using the standard approach of holding them with fingers behind the head. In fact, they can even stab with their mouths closed.

The new species, called Atractaspis branchi or Branch’s Stiletto Snake, was named to honor to the recently deceased South African herpetologist Prof. William Roy (Bill) Branch, a world leading expert on African reptiles.
 
Old 03-11-2019, 09:18 PM   #2
JColt
I was just reading awhile back about stiletto and now 3 new ones found. Great read, thanks for post
 

Join now to reply to this thread or open new ones for your questions & comments! FaunaClassifieds.com is the largest online community about Reptile & Amphibians, Snakes, Lizards and number one classifieds service with thousands of ads to look for. Registration is open to everyone and FREE. Click Here to Register!

 
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
The Aztec treasure unearthed: New earth snake species discovered in Mexico RSS_news Herps In The News 0 08-12-2016 01:30 PM
Europe has gained another snake: New species of grass snake discovered RSS_news Herps In The News 0 02-22-2016 09:50 AM
Rare Species of Snake Discovered! Bells Herps In The News 3 09-22-2012 04:13 AM
New 'horned' snake species discovered RSS_news Herps In The News 1 01-15-2012 07:59 AM
Colorful New Snake Species Discovered Cat_72 Herps In The News 4 01-11-2012 02:11 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:03 AM.







Fauna Top Sites


Powered by vBulletin® Version
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Page generated in 0.03893089 seconds with 12 queries
Content copyrighted ©2002-2022, FaunaClassifieds, LLC