The Aztec treasure unearthed: New earth snake species discovered in Mexico
The Aztec treasure unearthed: New earth snake species discovered in Mexico
Date:August 11, 2016
A specimen of the new species, Geophis loranca, in life.
Credit: Miguel Ángel de la Torre Loranca
A new gem has been added to the vast treasure of Mexican reptiles. Mexican scientists recently described a new and strikingly colored species of earth snake from the mountains of Puebla and Veracruz in east-central Mexico.
These burrowing reptiles are seldom encountered and, consequently, have been poorly studied. Furthermore, several species have restricted distribution, making them particularly vulnerable to extinction. The description of the new species was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Looking to shed light on the evolutionary history and diversity of earth snakes, Luis Canseco-Márquez and Adrián Nieto-Montes de Oca, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, started to collect samples of these rarely seen critters.
A sample from east-central Mexico exhibited a unique set of traits among earth snakes, one of them showing striking orange and black banding pattern. They realized that these snakes represented a new species and proceeded to describe it in collaboration with scientists Carlos J. Pavón-Vázquez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Marco A. López-Luna, Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. The specimens of the new species were deposited in the herpetological collections of the Museo de Zoología "Alfonso L. Herrera" and the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Zongolica.
More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811131646.htm