“This animal from the Cerrado has a little mustache—it is different from the others.” With this tip from his colleague Nelson Albuquerque, herpetologist Diego Santana of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) decided to genetically analyze a snake found by students in Tocantins. It was indeed a new species of parrot snake, dubbed Leptophis mystacinus, which lives and sleeps in trees, where it hunts small animals. It has no venomous fangs. Its closest relative also lives in the Caatinga, but does not have the same black “mustache” under its nostrils.
Image submitted by herpetologist Leandro Alves da Silva, a postdoctoral researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)
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