An 8-year-old child turned the stakes on a snake when he was bitten by a snake in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh, authorities said Saturday (Nov 5).
A new species of snake from Tamil Nadu and an old naming confusion from London
Updated:
Updated:
May 14, 2021 10:41 IST
Detailed investigation of unpublished manuscripts, paintings and even CT scanning old specimens showed that the Banded racer and Anamalai wolf snake were misidentified
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Platyceps josephi Credit: Surya Narayanan
Detailed investigation of unpublished manuscripts, paintings and even CT scanning old specimens showed that the Banded racer and Anamalai wolf snake were misidentified
An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of racer snake from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and also solved a naming confusion that existed for nearly two centuries.
Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: A group of researchers has discovered a new species of racer snake from Tamil Nadu and made a major taxonomic amendment for two widely distributed Indian snake species. The new species is named after late herpetologist Naveen Joseph.
The new species, Platyceps josephi, is a nonvenomous colubrid medium sized (maximum total length 951 mm) snake that can be seen in the open grasslands with rocky and scrub habitats.
The researchers working at Natural History Museum, London, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Zoological Survey of India, Don Bosco University, Assam, Indian Herpetological Society, Pune, and Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany, found that the banded racer snakes found in the southeastern part of peninsular India are morphologically and genetically distinct