Snake coinage come up in all shapes and sizes , fromenormous pythonstohorned snakesslithering through the desert . In the snake world , it can be specially difficult to tell a new species from be ones – many members of the same species can face physically very different , with variations in colors along their trunk . However , a new study has identified a new species of pit viper from Myanmar , and it is both a bright green and dark fleeceable stunner depend on which somebody you catch a glimpse of .
The genusTrimeresurusconsists of such snakes with a large reach of edition in appearance , also called morphology .
" Asiatic pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus are notoriously unmanageable to tell apart , because they start the gamut of morphological variation . Some groups contain multiple coinage that look likewise , while others may look very different but are actually the same species , " say Dr Chan Kin Onn , herpetologist and lead writer of the study in astatement .
The mangrove pit viper can be a range of colors but never green.© Chee Koi Jun via iNaturalist, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Both the due north and south sides of Myanmar are home to a metal money of pit viper . In the N , the redstart stone viper ( Trimeresurus erythrurus ) is identified by its greenish trunk with few other mark . In the Dixieland , the mangrove stone viper ( Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus ) occurs in a chain of mountains of colours including yellow-bellied , brown , and smutty – but is never green . The mangrove pit viper also has a more blotchy pattern on its body .
Between these two population is a third snake species live on in the central arena of Myanmar with an show of halfway between the two .
" This mysterious population in key Myanmar baffled us and we ab initio thought that it could be a hybrid population , " the research worker said . The team worked out in a differentpaperthat this third population was not a hybrid but a genetically dissimilar species .
Trimeresurus erythrurus is always green with no blotches.Image Credit: © Prosenjit Dawn Via INAturalist, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
This novel species had some extra puzzling characteristic just to make things more interesting . Certain populations were dark light-green with blotches , making it easy to tell aside from the mangrove viper and the redtail infernal region viper . Other members of the same novel species were bright unripe immature with no blotches and look almost precisely the same as the redtail infernal region viper .
" This is an interesting phenomenon , where one species is simultaneously interchangeable and different from its closest relative ( the Buteo jamaicensis pit viper ) . We recollect that at some point in the past , the new species may have exchanged genes with the Buteo jamaicensis endocarp viper from the N and the mangrove stone viper from the south , " said Dr Chan .
This new centrally found specie has been named the Ayeyarwady pit - viper ( Trimeresurus ayeyarwadyensis ) after the big river in Myanamar .
The newspaper is release in the journalZookeys .
