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4-foot snake with ‘very long’ snout found dead in Bihar turns out to be new species. See pics
Ahaetulla longirostris: A new snake species with an exceptionally long snout has been discovered in India.
A new snake species with an exceptionally long snout has been discovered in India. Two specimens of the long-snouted vine snake (Ahaetulla longirostris) were discovered hundreds of kilometres apart - in Bihar and in Meghalaya – according to a paper published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity.
According to the Miami Herald, two scientists named Sourabh Verma and Soham Pattekar were walking on the outskirts of a village in Bihar in 2021 when they stumbled upon a dead creature. The 4-foot-long creature intrigued them. It did not look like any known species.
DNA testing, follow-up surveys and in-dept analysis revealed that Verma and Pattekar has inadvertently discovered a new species of vine snake: Ahaetulla longirostris, or the long-snouted vine snake.
See pics of the snake below:
The study published in the Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity said that long-snouted vine snakes can reach a length of 4-feet in size. Zeeshan Mirza, Soham Pattekar, Sourabh Verma, Bryan Stuart, Jayaditya Purkayastha, Pratyush Mohapatra and Harshil Patel formed the research time.
“On 16 December 2021, a deceased vine snake was found on the outskirts of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve at the boundaries of the Gonauli village in the state of Bihar, India. The cause of death could not be ascertained as the animal did not bear any external injury,” the study said.
“The tail tip was taken from the dead Bihar specimen and preserved in 95% ethanol for molecular analysis” the study explained. “Molecular data further attested to the distinctiveness of the Bihar and Meghalaya population, which is described here as a new species.”
These long-snouted vine snakes can be bright green or orange brown. They typically have orange bellies. These snakes live in forests as well as “human-dominated” areas like cities.
