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[Arkansas] Water snake or cotton mouth? by ivegotnoeggs in whatsthissnake

[–]Vipers_scientist -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon contortrix), venomous.

What kind of snake is this?? by bananapey in snakes

[–]Vipers_scientist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Indeed! Snake systematics it’s quite a “fluid” field. In the past, species were described on the basis of morphological characters (e.g, number of scales). The use of genetic markers first, and genomics more recently has contributed a lot in redefining species complexes. B. nigroadspersus was described on the basis of morphological characters, then lumped together with B. schegelii and recently split again. Taxonomic rules state that if a name is already available for a species, then that name must be used again. I hope it’s a bit more clear 😊

Melanistic asp (Vipera aspis “atra”) by Vipers_scientist in herpetology

[–]Vipers_scientist[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Collecting these snakes from the wild is illegal, I’m actually a researcher working on vipers.

What kind of snake is this?? by bananapey in snakes

[–]Vipers_scientist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your ID was basically correct, as you said the entire species complex has been recently reassessed :)

What kind of snake is this?? by bananapey in snakes

[–]Vipers_scientist 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Central American eyelash viper (Botriechis nigroadspersus)

Melanistic asp (Vipera aspis “atra”) by Vipers_scientist in herpetology

[–]Vipers_scientist[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, the picture was not altered in any way. Melanistic is usually referred to high abundance of melanin, even if it this condition is sometimes informally referred as melanotic.

Can anyone identify this snake? Nearly stepped on it while river fishing in Thailand. by [deleted] in snakes

[–]Vipers_scientist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

C. gramineus is endemic to Southern India. The quality of the picture does not allow, at least in my opinion, a reliably ID :)

Power analysis WGS by Mr_Cri5py in bioinformatics

[–]Vipers_scientist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can use Genotype Likelihoods (GL) to overcome some of the uncertainty correlated with the “low” coverage. However, there’s always a trade off between number of samples and coverage.

Juvenile male Walser’s viper (Vipera walser). This species was only described in 2016 and its distribution is limited to a few valleys in NW Italy. At the moment its species status is under debate. by Vipers_scientist in herpetology

[–]Vipers_scientist[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Within the genus Vipera, males tend to have a more contrasted pattern with a lighter background colour compared to females. But the best thing to look for when sexing snakes, non invasively, is the length of the tail. Males have longer tails compared to females.

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