Proahaetulla
Proahaetulla is a monotypic genus of snake in the family Colubridae. It contains only one species, the keeled vine snake (Proahaetulla antiqua), which is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. Its natural habitat is montane rainforests of southern Western Ghats.
| Keeled vine snake | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Colubridae |
| Subfamily: | Ahaetuliinae |
| Genus: | Proahaetulla Mallik, Achyuthan, Ganesh, Pal, Vijayakumar & Shanker, 2019 |
| Species: | P. antiqua |
| Binomial name | |
| Proahaetulla antiqua Mallik, Achyuthan, Ganesh, Pal, Vijayakumar & Shanker, 2019 | |
The species was first discovered in 2011, when an individual was found in the Agasthyamalai Hills of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It was initially thought to be a new species of Ahaetulla, as it looked very similar to the species A. dispar. However, genetic analyses found it to be deeply divergent from any member in the genus Ahaetulla, so it was classified in its own genus. Both the genus and species were ultimately described in 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.