Russian and Vietnamese scientists have announced their discovery of a new species of “rattlesnake” (as it is called in the Vietnamese press release, but, no doubt, a “viper”), which belongs to the Protobothrops family, in the Trung Khanh Nature Reserve in the northwestern province of Cao Bang, the Vietnam news agency reported Thursday, August 20, 2009.
Nguyen Thien Tao, who is in charge of amphibians and reptiles at the Vietnam Nature Museum, said this is the fourth species of “rattlesnake” of the Protobothrops family identified in Vietnam.
The three others are Protobothrops cornutus, P.jerdonii and P. mucrosquamatus.
The new species of “rattlesnake” is named Protobothrops trungkhanhensis Orlov, Ryabov, an endemic species found in only the Trung Khanh Nature Reserve in Cao Bang, Vietnam.
The snake is only 733mm in length, quite small compared to other Protobothrops species, with a small triangle-shaped head and small scales.
The discovery was published in a Russian scientific magazine named Reptile and Amphibians in January 2009.
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