A new snake has been discovered that can attack with its fangs without opening its mouth

Scientists have discovered a new snake in the evergreen forests of Guinea and Liberia that can launch a poisonous fang attack without opening its mouth.

This is an unusual skill, they have long fangs that can spit out the corners of their mouths and stab the offender sideways.

They also have the ability to sprint at long distances, making them dangerous and cunning opponents, even for reptilians. Experts at the Natural History Museum in Berlin have found that special care should be taken when catching and laying down thin sword snakes.

Researchers stumbled upon the nocturnal creatures as they crawled along a dark slope, and entomologists tried to grasp the position behind the snake's head with their fingers, as they had experienced in the past.

As it turned out, this was not a good idea.

The authors write: "Caught in the head position, the snake repeatedly tried to attack. They either slowly move away from human observers or suddenly coil and bounce, jumping almost the entire body length, similar to the wolf snakes of the genus Lycophidion. ”

No one was injured in the end, but even if someone was bitten, it would not be fatal.

That's not to say they're not dangerous. (Image of injuries after being attacked by a poisonous snake, slightly infiltrated)

The venom of the slender sword snake is strongly cytotoxic (harmful to cells) and can cause severe pain, swelling, blisters, and sometimes even severe tissue necrosis. Without a known antivenom, the victim can even lose their fingers.

At a coffee and banana plantation in southeastern Guinea, the team safely caught two other snakes, about 27 kilometers apart. The researchers described them as slender bodies of medium length, round toe.

This new species is known as the Atractaspis branchi or Punch slender sword snake. At least 21 other species of slender sword snakes are known, most of which live in sub-Saharan Africa.

In fact, the researchers believe that the new slender sword snake is actually endemic to guinea's rainforest, a unique site of biodiversity in northwestern Liberia and southeastern Guinea, where the ecology is currently threatened by deforestation, agriculture, mining and, of course, climate change.

This finding suggests that the region is at the centre of endemic biodiversity and, unfortunately, it faces many threats. For now, however, it is not possible to know the extent to which the snakes are affected. After all, there is no biological or ecological information other than three specimens.

"Further investigation is needed to understand the range of activities of the new species and to gather more information about their ecological needs and biological characteristics." The authors write.

The paper was published in Zoosystematics and Evolution.

This article is translated from sciencealert and published by translator majer under the Creative Commons License (BY-NC).