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RE: New species
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by Naja_oxiana on March 13, 2002
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you'll need at least one specimen, detailed information of where you caught it, etc...
Withought looking at a journal, I can't get you everything you wish to know, but you'll do a basic description of the snake: dentition, scale counts, colouration, eyes, lenth of tail etc and compair these to other species. Some other species may be very similar and you will then go to genetic testing. It may be discovered that you have a new species or a sub-species.
There are a decent number of snakes which are known from one or two collected samples. WW would be the guy to talk to about this all, as he is the university herpetologist. He runs a venomous snakes symantics page which would provide some answers to your questions. (BGF, I believe, has a theory that signifcant toxicological differences in simila snake may hint to some taxonomic differences.)
In some particularly important cases--Naja and Echis--there has been a great effort to clear up the taxonomic confusion. There used to be only two recognized species of Echis, whereas now there are I think close to 10, and this is still undergoing revision. Naja naja used to cover all Asiatic cobras, save O. hannah. WW actually wrote an excellent journal artical which influenced Naja taxonomy and again would be the man to more fully answer your questions. (Example: Naja naja kaouthia now is known to have included a known spitter, Naja kaouthia and possibly another couple of now-distinct species.)
Sorry for the long windedness. Hope I have helped some.
Cheers
Roger
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RE: New species
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by CollegeRattler on March 29, 2002
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Hey,
As Roger said there is alot too animal systematics. Here is a good website to look at and maybe contact the researchers there
http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/update.htm
There is a lot involved other than looks just to let you know. But check out that site its pretty informative and good luck man.
T.C.
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