Comments on: Chameleon Snake Discovered

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 13:31:16 +0000

Not to my knowledge, which to my mind is what makes this seemingly innoccuous find so important…

By: MattBille

MattBille — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:27:01 +0000

I know the article calls color-changing snakes “rare” , but ARE there any other species, or is this the first known?

By: youcantryreachingme

youcantryreachingme — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:47:02 +0000

Doh. Hope I don’t catch bird-flu. Can’t imagine growing feathers

By: Dan Gannon

Dan Gannon — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:22:55 +0000

re: viral infection of the germ line cells (and possible viral transmission of genetic material between hosts.)

For example, you could have lizard (chameleon) DNA transmitted to a snake via a viral pathway. This could happen between any species infected by the same virii (between humans and monkeys or other primates, for example.) This mechanism may explain some anomalies, including perhaps some cryptids, and possibly some instances of “parallel evolution.”

By: youcantryreachingme

youcantryreachingme — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:32:02 +0000

To clarify Loren’s lead-in - that’s 350 (or 361 to be precise) new plant and animal species in Borneo - in the last 10 years.

The BBC news reports the genus as Enhydris and species as gyii.

German website “Geo” shows a beautiful photo of a snake described as “Enhydris sp.” in its article titled “Unknown species: they do exist!“.

The copyright holder is zoologist Mark Auliya and the article date is May 2005 - before the formal description in December 2005 and well after its collection in 1996.

(Didn’t we have an earlier discussion about the times between discovery and public announcement?)

In all liklihood, that’s the same species, and the enlarged photo is gorgeous!

Interestingly, the snake turned white when placed into a dark bucket. A second specimen did likewise with the same bucket and researchers don’t know why the colour change is the complete opposite expected for camouflage. Stress might be the prime reason.

Dan (5) mentioned it - what if we’d had some eyewitness report of a “fierce jungle snake, that changes colour from reddish-black to white in an instant with potent venom and the locals have mythical legends about villagers being killed in excruciating agony by these serpents of the deep“?

It would be written off as a joke, surely? Colour-changing snakes? Who’s ever heard of them? (Well, ok, there are others…)

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:40:15 +0000

I love to hear about new critters. Keeps my hopes up that someone will find a really big critter closer to home.

By: twblack

twblack — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:35:18 +0000

This is just one more case of we do not even have a clue as to how many more unknowns are out their. What wonderful news!

By: Dan Gannon

Dan Gannon — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:20:54 +0000

If this species was previously described by eyewitnesses, wouldn’t that make it a cryptid? I wonder if anyone has described such snakes before before. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been.

By: MBFH

MBFH — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 20:02:50 +0000

Saw this on BBC web news today…Jeremy is right. Brings up all sorts of possibilities doesn’t it: if a small reptile has evolved these characteristics have some large (undiscovered) ones…?(my first comment on this great site - thought it might as well be out of the left field!)

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:47:12 +0000

Wow… all kinds of things just keep on coming out of southeast Asia… the rock rat and mud snake may not be Mawas, but they are pretty darn interesting, and point to just how many critters are still out there waiting to be found.