Toxicon
June 2024
Although non-front fanged snakes account for almost two-thirds of snake diversity, most studies on venom composition and evolution focus exclusively on front-fanged species, which comprise most of the clinically relevant accidents. Comprehensive reports on venom composition of non-front fanged snakes are still scarce for several groups. In this study, we address such shortage of knowledge by providing new insights about the venom composition among species of Phalotris, a poorly studied Neotropical dipsadid genus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe secretive behavior and life history of snakes makes studying their biology, distribution, and the epidemiology of venomous snakebite challenging. One of the most useful, most versatile, and easiest to collect types of biological data are photographs, particularly those that are connected with geographic location and date-time metadata. Photos verify occurrence records, provide data on phenotypes and ecology, and are often used to illustrate new species descriptions, field guides and identification keys, as well as in training humans and computer vision algorithms to identify snakes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe a new species of the Scinax ruber clade from Northeastern Brazil that occurs in widely separated geographic areas in the Atlantic Forest of southern Bahia state and the Highland Humid Forest of Serra de Baturité, northeast Ceará state. Scinax tropicalia sp. nov.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn Acad Bras Cienc
November 2020
We describe a new dipsadine snake species, of the genus Oxyrhopus Wagler, 1830, from the highlands of Bolivia. Oxyrhopus emberti sp. n.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe norms regarding validity and formulation of specific epithets in Zoology are ruled by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999), a published convention of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, that operates under a vast array of underlying nomenclatural principles. One of its components is Article 31, which rules upon the formation of specific or subspecific epithets for personal names, by the use of nomina (sensu Dubois 2007) under genitive case. As discussed by Dubois (2007), this has erroneously led several authors to assume that the aforementioned nomina should exclusively end in "-i" if dedicated to a man (or -orum, for plural), and in "-ae" if dedicated to a woman (or -arum, for plural) (being also important to state that this provision is sensitive on whether the chosen nomina is a modern personal name (Art.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a diverse neotropical snake genus, which has been historically subjected to poor taxonomic descriptions, largely based on either a small type series or subjective diagnoses. We evaluate the case of Lema, 1978 and its intricate taxonomic history, suggesting its synonymization with (Jan, 1862), and providing brief commentary on the taxonomic instability that has been plaguing the genus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Troschel's Pampas Snake, Phimophis guianensis (Troschel, 1848), is widely distributed in Amazonian Savannas at northern South America and a small portion of southern Central America, being recorded to Brazil based on three historical records, that ranged from 1997 to 2002, in Amapá and Pará states. In this study, we revise all known records of P. guianensis, providing an updated distribution map, and the first record to Roraima state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the biodiversity of an area is the first step for establishing effective interventions for conservation, especially when it comes to herpetofauna, since 4.1% and 9.2%, respectively, of Brazilian amphibians and reptiles are endangered.
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