11/19/2023 0 Comments Blue rhinoceros viperGenerally, body coloration and pattern are very similar to the habitat where the snake lives, helping it to blend in with its surroundings. In South Africa, coloration and pattern can vary dramatically even in individuals within a single population, whereas in Morocco, for example, the variability of patterns and coloration is very consistent (Martínez del Mármol et al., 2019). Like most of the Bitis species, they usually move slowly and with a rectilinear locomotion, although if they feel threatened, they can move with rapid sidewinding movements and can disappear quite quickly especially if they find a place of refuge. Photo: © Gabri Mtnez Adult in defensive behavior, Namibia (right). Individuals found in close proximity to each other, an example of the phenotypic variability of this species in South Africa (left). However, as a species they are very stout and bulky snakes so even though they are not very large, they are nonetheless quite impressive-looking snakes. Bitis arietans is commonly known as a puff adder, because when it feels threatened, it will hiss very loudly as a warning usually before striking.Īdults average less than one meter in total length, although some individuals can reach lengths of more than 120cm (Marlow et al., 2003). The subgenus Bitis is composed of a unique species, Bitis arietans (Merrem, 1820). Filled circles at nodes indicate Bayesian clade support of 1.0, whereas values <1.0 are given numerically. Mitochondrial gene tree estimated in the three‐locus multispecies coalescent (MSC) analysis for Bitis. Further analyses have confirmed that genetic diversification in the genus Bitis (Barlow et al., 2013 Pyron et al., 2013 Barlow et al., 2019, Fig 1). (1999) used molecular data (immunological distances and mitochondrial DNA sequences) to estimate the phylogenetic relationships among the various species of Bitis, and identified four major monophyletic groups for which they created four subgenera. That extreme phenotypic variability is also reflected in the genetic data as well. In fact, although there are some small populations in Arabia and North Africa, it is in sub-Saharan Africa where the genus reaches its most diverse and varied evolutionary traits. Whereas, for example, the genus Daboia Gray 1842 has the greatest geographic distribution, extending from the Atlantic Coast of Morocco in the west to the islands of Indonesia in the east (Das, 2012), the genus Bitis is primarily one from Africa, and more exactly specifically, of sub-Saharan Africa (Phelps 2010). Apart of the spider-tailed viper, Pseudocerastes urarachnoides Bostanchi, Anderson & Papenfuss 2006, which has the most advanced lure mechanism in all the animal kingdom, are snakes in the genus, Bitis Gray 1842, and it is here where we find the most diverse phenotypic variability of all the vipers, and likely in all snakes species. The true, or Old World vipers are where we can find the family with the most extreme phenotypic adaptations. Some vipers, such as those in the genus Gloydius Hoge & Romano-Hoge 1981 can be found at high altitude, even reaching elevations up to 4.880m (16.000 feet)(Mc Diarmid et al., 1999 Shi et al., 2017). A number of species are quite adept at camouflage such as those in the genus Agkistrodon Palisot de Beauvois 1799 and Protobothrops Hoge & Romano-Hoge 1983. Several new genera have recently been described (C ryptelytrops, Himalayophis, Parias, Peltopelor, Popeia and Viridovipera) Malhotra and Thorpe 2004. Also included in this subfamily are the largest vipers on Earth, those in the genus Lachesis Daudin, 1803, and the great variability of arboreal vipers which are found within the genera Bothriechis Peters 1859, Trimeresurus Lacépède 1804 and Tropidolaemus Wagler 1830. In this subfamily we find genera with extreme phenotypic variability such as the rattlesnakes of the genus Crotalus Linnaeus 1758. That family, known as the pit vipers, occurs in the Americas and throughout Asia from the islands of southeast Asia ( Philippines-Indonesia), in the east to Azerbaijan in the west (McDiarmid et al., 1999 Gloyd & Conant 1990). The subfamily, Crotalinae Oppel, 1811 has a wide global distribution and thus a greater number of genera and species within that subfamily (Wallach et al., 2014). They inhabit the majority of the biomes of planet Earth and within this large suborder, the vipers are probably one of the best known and recognized of all the snakes. Snakes (Serpentes Linnaeus, 1758) are within the order Squamata, of the class Reptilia, within the phylum Chordata (Pyron et al., 2013).
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