Scientists find coral snake species in Himachal Pradesh, say its the most unique species

Scientists have discovered a coral snake species from Himachal Pradesh that they never thought actually existed. The species found in Himachal Pradesh was thought to be lost for 120 years and was recently rediscovered. The new discoveries have found that the coral snakes found in India are absolutely unique and not variants of mere other species.

Scientists find unique coral snake species in Himachal Pradesh 

Researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun and the Natural History Museum, London have rediscovered a snake that was assumed to be lost for 120 years. The scientific research is being authored by Zeeshan A. Mirza of NCBS, Vishal Varma of WII and Patrick Campbell of the NHM. The paper was published in the international journal Zootaxa.

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In the paper, Zeeshan reportedly talked about the Black-bellied coral snake (scientifically called Sinomicrurus nigriventer). This particular snake species was described in the year 1909 as a variety of the McClelland’s coral snake species from Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh by the British naturalist Col. Frank Wall. But in 2019, when a road-killed specimen was collected near Solan by Vishal Varma, it changed the earlier views of scientists about the particular species.

Researchers found out that DNA data of the newly found specimen showed that it is unique from all other species, hence not a mere variant of McClelland’s coral snake which it was earlier thought to be. The new specimen was found to be different from other species of the coral snakes of the genus. Genus is a rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms.

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In fact, the specimen was diverse in particular with the only species of the genus known from India. The researchers compared the scalation data of the snake with specimens in the collection of the Natural History Museum and zoological collection of the University of Copenhagen.

According to researchers, most of the work conducted on the herpetofauna of Himachal Pradesh was undertaken during British rule. Therefore, many species were merely identified based on external features which are not sufficient to identify cryptic species. The researchers hope to show that the diversity of the Western Himalayas is also unique when coral snakes are concerned.

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Zeeshan Mirza has been working with college students from the state to document the diversity of reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids. Zeeshan along with his colleagues have been studying the reptiles of the country. He has identified and described over 43 new species to science that include snakes, lizards, tarantulas and scorpions.

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Image credits: Fernando Santander Unsplash

The promo images are not of the snakes mentioned in the article and are only for representation purposes.