From “nope ropes” to “danger noodles,” people don’t often talk about snakes with much love. But they’re an important part of the food chain, both as predators and prey, and help maintain a healthy ecosystem. That’s why it’s important for us to know as much as we can about them.
While we might not all be thrilled to know there’s yet another type of snake in the world, this newest find comes with quite a strange story.
The new, secretive species has never been encountered by scientists before. In fact, it wasn’t even found slithering around in the wild, but rather, preserved in the Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center at the University of Texas at Arlington.
As you can see here, it’s not the only specimen waiting to be studied – there are over 200,000 amphibians and reptiles housed there:
The researchers have come up with a clever name for the new species – Cenaspis aenigma. This is translated as “the mysterious dinner snake” (in Latin, cena=dinner, aspis=snake, and aenigma=enigma/mystery).
But this isn’t the weirdest part of the story. The “mysterious dinner snake” got its name because it was discovered in the stomach of a Central American coral snake (Micrurus nigrocinctus) in Chiapas, Mexico.
Interestingly, the specimen was found 40 years ago, but it remained unstudied until now.
A partially digested, 40-year-old snake specimen doesn’t give scientists much to work with when it comes to understanding its behavior or role in the local ecosystem. Nonetheless, scientists in Arlington have published a paper on what they could deduce from the remaining evidence.
Titled “Caudals and Calyces: The Curious Case of a Consumed Chiapan Colubroid,” the team notes in their paper that
“This enigmatic little snake possesses a unique suite of characters that defies placing it in any known genus…”
That means the snake so unique that it qualifies as both a new species AND a new genus (which is a larger group of closely-related species).
Some of these unique characteristics include undivided plates on the underside of its tail (subcaudal scales), and a unique shape and cover over the male specimen’s sex organ (called the hemipenis). It also has a unique skull shape.
Here’s an artist’s rendering of what the snake looks like when it hasn’t been eaten first:
Based on its skeleton and teeth, the researchers’ best guess is that it is a burrowing snake that feeds on insects and spiders. It’s fairly plain to look at, and it likely spent most of its time underground. That’s likely why no more have been discovered.
Here you can see both sides of the preserved specimen, although it’s seen better days:
But not everything about the creature makes sense to scientists. The underside of this snake has some triangular blotches that make an irregular stripe pattern which very few snakes in the New World have – the role of these stripes is not clear.
It also has fourteen short teeth on its upper jaw, which is uncommon, as other snakes either have more or less, depending on what they eat. The current hypothesis is that it eats soft creatures like slugs, although the teeth indicate that it can each crunchier insects. Guessing the exact diet and habitat of the species impossible for now.
Scientists will need to discover a living specimen before they can learn much more. That seems like a long-shot, but now that we know there’s something new out there and roughly where to look for it, it may become easier to do more research.
Despite no one encountering the snake in the last 42 years, the scientists don’t think it’s extinct. Rather, it’s just a secretive creature that keeps its distance from humans.
While this is a rare find, it’s not actually the first species to be found inside the stomach of a coral snake – these guys clearly like their rare delicacies! However, the Cenaspis aenigma is the first new genus to be discovered in this way.
It’s amazing to think that we’re still discovering new creatures in the world around us. But that’s likely because humans encroach more every day into animal territory. It’s important to think about how we can learn about and protect new life at the same time.
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