In the Ecuadorian Amazon, scientists have discovered a new species of miniature boa that even snake-averse people would find adorable. Very few of these reptiles are longer than a foot.
While exploring a patch of cloud forest, a high-altitude forest where clouds seep through the trees, Alex Bentley, research coordinator for the Sumac Kawsay In Situ field station in the eastern foothills of the Andes, came across a small, coiled snake.
He shared a photo of the snake with his colleagues, including Omar Entiauspe-Neto, a Ph.D. student on Brazilian Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Butantan Institute.
It came as a shock to scientists, including Entiauspe-Neto, the corresponding author of the study identifying the species in the European Journal of Taxonomy.
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Dwarf boas are common in other parts of South America and the West Indies, but Bentley was the first to record one in the area he explored. Entiauspe-Neto claims that the most famous similarity to the species in Bentley’s photograph is found west of the Andes in Ecuador and that it appears “radically different” of the one in the picture.
The snake didn’t match any dwarf boa species known to us, but it shared many features with a specimen from the Ecuadorian Museum of Natural Sciences.
“We’re usually afraid to describe new species based on just one single one, because there’s a chance there’s some sort of variation,” said Entiauspe-Neto. “Once we got those two specimens, we were pretty sure it was a new species.”
The researchers determined that they had discovered a new species of snake by comparing the phenotype and genetic sequence of the mysterious snakes to those of previously described species.
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The species, Tropidophis cacuangoae, is named after Dolores Cacuango, an indigenous activist and pioneer in Ecuador’s effort to establish the country’s first bilingual schools, where Spanish and Quechua were taught side by side.
Final thoughts
Scientists have found a new species of tiny boa in the Ecuadorian Amazon that is so cute even snake haters might laugh. However, only a small fraction of these reptiles reach lengths of a foot or more.
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