Photographs of Waraya’s pygmy snake (Levitonius mirus): holotype (A) and paratypes (B and C). Scale bars – 10 mm (thick) and 1 mm (thin). Image credit: Weinell et al., doi: 10.1643/CH2020110.
The Waray pygmy snake has a fossil lifestyle and possibly makes a speciality of its weight loss plan of earthworms and other limbless invertebrates.
It has a maximum total length of 17.2 cm (6.8 in), making it the smallest known species of the snake superfamily Elapoidea.
“The Waray pygmy snake has the fewest vertebrae of any snake species in the world, which is likely the result of miniaturization and adaptation to spending most of its life underground,” he said Jeff WeinellPhD student on the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Biodiversity Institute on the University of Kansas.
For the study, Weinell and colleagues obtained and analyzed genetic and morphological data from the mystery snake.
They also used CT scans to take a better have a look at the interior anatomy.
They found that the snake had a reduced variety of scales on its head, a highly ossified skull, smooth and iridescent scales, small eyes and nostrils, and a small neural spine.
“The discovery tells us that we are able to still learn so much about reptile biodiversity within the southern Philippines by specializing in the microhabitats preferred by the species,” he said Doctor Marites Bonachita-Sanguillabiologist on the Center for Informatics and Biodiversity Research on the University of Father Saturnino Urios.
“Habitat loss due to human-mediated land use, such as the conversion of forest habitats to agriculture to produce food for humans, is a dominant problem in Philippine society today.”
“This new information, and what we learn more in future studies of this extraordinary little creature, will inform conservation planning because of the strong need for initiatives to protect Philippine endemic species – even those we rarely see.”
“We need effective land use management strategies, not only to guard famous Philippine species corresponding to eagles and tarsiers, but additionally lesser-known, inconspicuous species and their very specific habitats – on this case, the soil of the forest floor, since that is the one home May”.
The discovery – reports the day by day Kopeja.
Jeffrey L. Weinell et al. 2020. A brand new, miniaturized genus and species of snake (Cyclocoridae) from the Philippines. Kopeja 108(4): 907-923; doi: 10.1643/CH2020110
