Picture this: you’re hiking through a dense forest when you spot a sleek serpent slithering across your path. Your heart races as one question flashes through your mind – is this snake dangerous? The truth is, out of nearly 4,000 snake species worldwide, only about 600 are venomous enough to harm humans. But why did ...
Discovering a new species is exciting, but why name a newly discovered snake after Leonardo DiCaprio? Well, it just so happens that Indian scientists after discovering a new snake in the Western Himalaya, decided to name it after the Titanic movie star for his contribution to wildlife conservation. The discovery of the new snake named ...
Ancient reptiles are full of fascinating creatures, but few could leave you feeling as if you wouldn’t want to dangle a toe in the ocean, like the Palaeophis colossaeus. Fortunately for us, we don’t have to worry about that today, as this enormous marine reptile roamed prehistoric oceans millions upon millions of years ago. Let’s ...
For the longest time, it has been assumed that Elapoidea snakes originated from Africa, based on the discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil. Recent genetic research tells us something quite different, though – it tells us that this group of snakes, in fact, originated in Asia 35 million years ago. Initially, the gap between 25 ...
The world’s largest snake has recently been discovered in the Amazon rainforest. This new species of northern green anaconda (Eunectes akiyama) differs by as much as 5.5 percent from the southern green anaconda. Introduction The discovery was made by Prof. Freek J. Vonk, who, in the footage, was seen swimming nonchalantly alongside the largest snake ...
This exciting fossil finding really does prove that size doesn’t matter. A tiny piece of amber, not much larger than a pebble, holds the oldest baby snake fossil ever found. And when we say old we mean really, really, really old – estimates state that this tiny snake lived on Earth 99 million years ago. ...
In 1976, four snake fossils were discovered huddled together in the White River Formation, Wyoming. These perfectly preserved 38 million-year-old fossils’ identity remained a mystery until scientists made use of newer technology to identify them as a new species, Hibernophis breithaupti. Its discovery gives insights into the social behavior of snakes and helps fill some ...
The rustle of leaves, a sudden movement in the grass, and there it is – a snake. Most children’s first instinct is to run, scream, or freeze in terror. But what if we told you that these slithering creatures could become one of the most fascinating subjects your child ever discovers? Behind those scales and ...
Picture this: you’re walking through a forest floor carpeted with fallen leaves when suddenly, what you thought was debris begins to slither away. This isn’t magic — it’s the incredible evolutionary masterpiece known as the leaf-nosed viper. These serpents have perfected the art of deception so thoroughly that they don’t just look like dead leaves; ...
Gargi Chakravorty
