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Keel-bellied mud snake, Bitia hydroides. Gray, 1842
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Bitia hydroides Gray, 1842: 64. Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.2.38. Type locality: Unknown. Homalopsis hydrina Cantor, 1847: 104. Holotype: possibly in the ZSI collection, Calcutta, India. Type locality: sea off Kedah Coast, peninsular Malaysia. Hipistes fasciatus Gray, 1849a: 78. Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.2.50. Type locality: from East Indies. Hipistes hydrinus – Günther, 1864: 287. Distribution: Coastal waters of…
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Sumatran short-tailed snake, Karnsophis siantaris
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Brachyorrhos albus Bleeker, 1857c: 472; 1860: 286. Karnsophis siantaris Murphy and Voris, 2013: 142 Holotype: USNM 103578, adult male from Siantar, Sumatera Utara, Sumatra, Indonesia. Distribution: Known from type locality, Siantar, Sumatera Utara, Sumatra. However, Bleeker (1860) reported Brachyorrhos albus from Agam (~0º15’S 100º 05’E) and Padang (~0º 57’S 100º 21’E) both central Sumatran locations…
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Cantor’s water snake, Cantoria violacea Girard, 1858
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Cantoria violacea Girard, 1858: 182. Holotype: USNM 5523.Type Locality: near Singapore. Hydrodipsas elapiformis Peters, 1859: 270, fig 1. Holotype: Berlin Museum. Type locality: Sarawak. Hemiodonotus elapiformis – Jan, 1863: 79. Cantoria elongata Günther, 1864: 277 [based upon Girard’s specimen]. Cantoria elapiformis – Günther, 1868: 124. Cantoria dayana Stoliczka, 1870: 208, pl. 11, fig 5. Type…
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Dehydration in sea snakes
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Like camels of the sea, a species of sea snake goes without a drink for months on end, gradually dehydrating, before refueling with freshwater when rain falls, new research suggests. “Perhaps six or seven months of the year, these snakes are living thirsty,” said Coleman Sheehy III, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Florida,…
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Homing & navigation in the invasive Python bivittatus
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Evidence for homing behavior and navigation in snakes has been around for awhile see Stickel and Cope (1947) and such behavior should not be at all surprising in Python bivittatus, so keep this in mind while reading the popular press release below. By Mickie Andersson, University of Florida News Center GAINESVILLE — If you pick…
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Rukwanyoka holmani; the oldest advanced venomous snake
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A vertebrae of the oldest fossil venomous snake Rukwanyoka holmani in Africa. Photo Credit: Ohio University. Ohio University scientists have found the oldest definitive fossil evidence of modern, venomous snakes in Africa, according to a new study published March 19 in the journal PLOS ONE. The newly discovered fossils demonstrate that elapid snakes—such as cobras, kraits and…
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Jurassic sites link fossil communities of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals
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The fossil salamander Chunerpeton shows the preserved skeleton, the skin, and external gills. Photo Credit: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Over the last two decades, huge numbers of fossils have been collected from the western Liaoning Province and adjacent parts of northeastern China, including exceptionally preserved feathered dinosaurs, early birds, and mammals. Most of these specimens…
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Interspecific aggression in garter snakes
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The aquatic garter snake at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, Oakland, CA. Photo credit: Sarah Stierch. Aggressive behavior is used in many vertebrate communities to gain control of resources, snakes, however, have been thought the exception. Some snake species use male-to-male combat for access to females, but this is intraspecies behavior. Food partitioning usually thought to…
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Seram short-tailed snake, Brachyorrhos albus (Linnaeus, 1758)
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Coluber albus Linnaeus1758: 128. Holotype: NRM19. Type Locality: “Indiis” (Ambon, Indonesia). Brachyorrhos albus – Kuhl in Schlegel, 1826: 236. Calamaria brachyorrhos Müller, 1857: 39. Distribution: Indonesian islands of Seram and its satellites (Ambon, Haruku, Nusa Laut, Saparua). Additionally, one specimen from Palau Bisa (MZB2609) is morphologically similar to this species, but needs molecular confirmation. Brachyorrhos…
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Halmahera short-tailed snake, Brachyorrhos wallacei Murphy, Mumpuni, de Lang, Gower, and Sanders, 2012
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Brachyorrhos wallacei Murphy, Mumpuni, de Lang, Gower, and Sanders, 2012a: 510. Holotype: BJE0 1059. Type locality: Jailolo, Halmahera, Indonesia. Brachyorrhos albus – Boulenger, 1893, 1: 305. Distribution: Halmahera, Indonesia (Murphy et al. 2012a). Diagnosis: A fangless homalopsid. Usually lacks preocular, usually seven (rarely six) upper labials, tallest is sixth (rarely fifth). This snake is quite…
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Herpetofauna of the the Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve, Vietnam
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Rhynchophis boulengeri , one of the colubrids present at Tay Yen Tu. JCM The Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve is located in Bac Giang Province, about 100 km northeast of Hanoi, Vietnam and is situated in the western side of theYen Tu massif, which is the largest granitic formation in northeastern Vietnam. The main habitat…
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Risk assessment for Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park
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A large Burmese python, weighing 162 pounds and more than 15 feet long at the time of its capture in 2009. Caught alive in the Everglades, it had eaten an American alligator that measured about 6 feet in length. University of Florida researchers in the photo: Michael Rochford is holding the python’s head, and Alex Wolf…
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