photo by: University of Kansas
Jeff Weinell, a KU graduate research assistant at the KU Biodiversity Institute, is lead author of a paper describing the Waray Dwarf Burrowing Snake as both a new genus and a new species in the peer-reviewed journal Copeia.
It just took a fresh pair of eyes for three preserved snake specimens to be recognized as something special and entirely new.
In 2017, graduate research assistant Jeff Weinell realized that three snake specimens in the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum had been misidentified.
He had been studying a genus of snakes called Pseudorabdion and sequencing their DNA in order to understand their evolutionary relationships. When he got the results back, however, he realized that one specimen that had been identified as Pseudorabdion did not actually fit into the genus.
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Updated Dec 30, 2020 | 13:54 IST
The three snakes are now the only new members of the new genus called Levitonius, and new species called Levitonius mirus. Jeff Weinell | Photo Credit: Twitter
A new species of snakes, believed to be endemic in the Philippines, was discovered by a team of scientists as part of a new genus.
Jeff Weinell, a graduate research assistant at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, claimed that the Waray Dwarf Burrowing Snake has characteristics that are different to its previous classification.
Weinell, while studying three snake specimens preserved in the institute s biodiversity collection, realised that reptiles belonged to a new species, reported CNN.
Specimens at the University of Kansas have been misidentified for years
Researchers only now realized its a distinct miniature species and genus
One of the smallest snakes of its kind, it has among the fewest vertebrae of any species
The Waray dwarf lives mostly underground, surfacing only after heavy rains
Not every new animal is discovered in the jungle or rainforest: A new species of snake was discovered in a museum after being ignored by researchers for years.
Levitonius mirus, also known as the Waray dwarf burrowing snake, is native to the Philippines.
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But specimens of the snake sent to the University of were misidentified until a research assistant conducted analysis of their scales and skeletal structure.
A miniaturised snake
The snake is described as a miniaturised genus and species, much smaller than its closest relatives, Mr Weinell said.
While Levitonius mirus reaches at most 17 centimetres in length, the size of a pencil, he said, the closest relatives could be three to four times larger. That has a lot of consequences, like reduction of the number of bones, a sort of simplification of the body, Mr Weinell said. Miniaturisation hasn t been observed that often, at least in snakes, the KU graduate research assistant said, and this snake represents one of the most extreme cases within the larger clade it belongs in, called Elapoidea.