Australia gets a cool new snake... and of course it's venomous!
but not really that deadly to humans. seems like to burrow and prefer to prey on smaller blindsnakes. still it's in the Elapidae family so it's related to Cobras and Corals, etc and it kinda looks the part:
so the original specimen was found back in 2014 and a handful have been found since. studies were had and the findings were just published establishing Vermicella parscauda (aka Bandy Bandy) as a new species.
congrats Australia and good job Mama Nature!
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/vermicella-parscauda-venomous-snake-australia-06209.html
https://www.buzzfeed.com/elfyscott/a...m5X#.bp7bNEvODNew Venomous Snake Discovered in Australia: Vermicella parscauda
A team of scientists led by a University of Queensland biologist has discovered a new species of bandy-bandy snake on the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Australia.
Bandy-bandies are members of the genus Vermicella, part of the cobra family Elapidae (elapids).
These snakes are small (20-40 inches, or 50-100 cm long) black and white burrowing elapids with a highly specialized diet of blindsnakes. They are venomous but inoffensive.
There are currently seven recognized species in the Vermicella genus, all located in Australia, with the hoop snake (Vermicella annulata) the most encountered species with the largest distribution.
The newly-discovered bandy-bandy species, named Vermicella parscauda, occurs in the Weipa area, Cape York, Queensland.
“The chance discovery occurred when we were undertaking sea snake research,” said team leader Dr. Bryan Fry, from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland.
“Bandy-bandies are burrowing snakes, so we were surprised when we found it on a concrete block by the sea, after coming in from a night of sea snake spotting.”
“We later discovered that the snake had slithered over from a pile of bauxite rubble waiting to be loaded onto a ship.”
Dr. Fry and colleagues said they feared Vermicella parscauda could be in trouble.
“Bauxite mining is a major economic activity in the region, and it may be reshaping the environment to the detriment of native plants and animals,” Dr. Fry said.
“The importance of such discoveries goes beyond simply documenting what is out there, as venoms are rich sources of compounds that can be used to develop new medications.”
“Every species is precious and we need to protect them all, since we can’t predict where the next wonder-drug will come from.”
“The discovery of this enigmatic little snake is symptomatic of the much more fundamental problem of how little we know about our biodiversity and how much may be lost before we even discover it.”
A paper reporting this discovery is published in the journal Zootaxa.
more here: https://www.whio.com/news/national/n...lz7fxuYv67kVM/An Extremely Rare New Species Of Snake Has Been Discovered In Australia
Oh, good.
A new species of bandy-bandy snake has been discovered in the Weipa region on the tip of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.
Known as Vermicella parscauda the new species was discovered by researchers from the University of Queensland, who stumbled across the first specimen after an unrelated research expedition.
"This one was actually just by complete fluke," lead researcher, associate professor Bryan Fry, told BuzzFeed News. "We were out doing sea snake research and when we came into the dock that night, there at the end of the pier was a little bandy-bandy.
"We were like, 'What are you doing here? You're a burrowing snake, you're not supposed to be on a fishing dock!'"
The researchers concluded the snake must have escaped from a nearby Rio Tinto ship that was loading ore from a bauxite mine.
While the snake was found in 2014, the research team needed time to assess its genetics and morphology. It published its findings in the Zootaxa journal this month.
Parscauda has more bands than other known species of bandy-bandy and despite being venomous, it is not dangerous to humans as its venom is designed to prey on blind snakes and not mammals.
The snake is also thought to be extremely rare.
"With all of our intensive searching and looking through every museum specimen that we could find, and contacting people from the area and looking at photos of anything remotely like it, we could only find six," said Fry.
The University of Queensland team has now formally filed with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to have the snake declared as a threatened species.
Fry believes the bauxite mining is destroying the snake's habitat and could wipe it out completely.
"We're using it as a flagship species for that broader conversation of what kind of economy we want – do we want a short-term, low-tech economy of digging holes in the ground or do we want a sustainable economy that's built around using our biodiversity in a sustainable manner?"
and here: https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2018...declared-risk/
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Originally Posted by craigafrechette
