Taxonomic Revision of Ningshan Odd-Scaled Snake, Achalinus ningshanensis (Serpentes, Xenodermidae), with Description of a New Subspecies from Western China †
Yuhao Xu, Shun Ma, Bo Cai, Diancheng Yang, Tianyou Zhang, Tianxuan Gu, Fengcheng Zhu, Song Huang, Lifang Peng · 2024
Read Taxonomic Revision of Ningshan Odd-Scaled Snake, Achalinus ningshanensis (Serpentes, Xenodermidae), with Description of a New Subspecies from Western China † by Yuhao Xu, Shun Ma, Bo Cai, Diancheng Yang, Tianyou Zhang, Tianxuan Gu, Fengcheng Zhu, Song Huang, Lifang Peng (2024) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11639932.txt.
Description
Yuhao Xu and co-authors revise, in a 2024 paper, the classification of a rare odd-scaled snake from the mountains of western China. The Ningshan odd-scaled snake was named only two years earlier, from seven female specimens found in Shaanxi Province. The team compared DNA from four genes and body features across more samples. Their family tree placed the snake close to a known relative and split it into two clear lineages.
One lineage, from western Sichuan and the southwest of Shaanxi, differed enough to name as a new subspecies. The authors give it a formal name and list the traits that set it apart, including tail proportions, chin shields, and tooth counts. The other lineage keeps the original name. The revision sharpens how this little-known snake is identified in the field and in collections.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yuhao Xu, Shun Ma, Bo Cai, Diancheng Yang, Tianyou Zhang, Tianxuan Gu, Fengcheng Zhu, Song Huang, Lifang Peng |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |