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The proto-spearhead viper genus is a snake under the viper subfamily of the viper family, and they all have some common features of pit vipers, such as the triangular head morphology, the type of poisonous teeth is tube teeth, the body color is complex and changeable, and the habitat environment is different.
Before 1983, the earliest named snakes in this genus, such as the original spearhead viper and the cauliflower original spearhead viper, belonged to the genus Bamboo Leaf Green, but the names were all soldering iron heads, cauliflower soldering iron heads and the like; a paper published in 1983 re-established a new genus based on the snake yellow-green soldering iron heads in the Ryukyu Islands region, that is, the original spearhead viper genus. The genus is characterized by elongated, generally toothless palatal bones, no protrusions at the edge of the maxilla buccal fossa, anterior flank of the outer wing bone not broad, and separation of the umbilic bone from the splint bone. At this point, snakes with this type of characteristics will be regrouped in this genus, such as the original spearhead pit viper of the original soldering ironhead snake genus, the original spearhead pit viper of cauliflower, etc.
Rare snakes in China: Mangshan original spearhead pit viper
There are currently 15 known species of snakes in the genus Proto-Spearhead Viper, mainly distributed in The Qinling-Huai River south of China, the Indochina Peninsula, South Asia and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. China is the main distribution area, there are 9 species, although there are many species, but most of the distribution area of snakes in this genus is narrow and rare.
Regarding the origin and evolution of this genus of snakes, Chinese scholars have long studied it. The mitochondrial genes of the existing protosthetic viper snake were analyzed by molecular biogenetic technology, and the results showed that the proto-spearhead pit viper snake originated from the early Miocene about 20 million years ago, and began to differentiate within the genus at 17 million, divided into 4 branches. The ancestral distribution area of the existing species of the genus Proto-spearhead Pit viper is located in the southwest and adjacent areas of China, and spreads to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and central and eastern China, and has experienced 38 dispersion events and 11 isolation events, and finally formed today's distribution pattern. And China is also its main distribution area.
Horned Plain spearhead pit viper
Among the 9 species of proto-spearhead pit viper snakes in China, many are still endemic, and some species belong to extremely rare species, such as the Mangshan original spearhead pit viper. Let's take a look at these rare pit vipers in chronological order of discovery.
Cauliflower original spearhead viper
Originally named Cauliflower Soldering Iron Head, it was first named in 1875, and its colorful snake body is its signature color, but it is smaller than the Mangshan original spearhead pit viper. It inhabits the mountainous or plateau areas at an altitude of about 1800 meters, and the number is sparse, and it is distributed in the central and western regions and central provinces of China. It is found abroad in South Asia, in parts of Southeast Asia.
Juvenile cauliflower proto-spearhead viper
The distribution area of the cauliflower original spearhead pit viper is high altitude area, which is rare at lower altitudes, and different ecological adaptations have formed between each other, and the color difference is obvious, making many zoologists think that they are different subspecies relationships. In addition, the cauliflower proto-spearhead pit viper is the only oviparous snake in the genus of proto-spearhead pit vipers.
Adult cauliflower original spearhead pit viper
Original spearhead viper
Common names are also called soldering iron heads, turtle shell flowers, etc. It was first named in 1839 and is found in the Indian state of Assam. The classification of it is also quite tortuous, initially classified into the genus Bamboo Leaf Green, and later reclassified into the original spearhead viper genus, because its name is the same as the genus name, in order to avoid confusion, it was renamed the original spearhead viper, but the original name has also been used. The original spearhead viper has a typical triangular head, a small head and neck, resembling a soldering iron, a slender tail, and is good at climbing trees.
It is commonly found in some hilly and mountainous areas such as shrubland and arable land. It is widely distributed in China in addition to Tibet, Xinjiang, Northeast China and other regions, and is found in South Asia and Myanmar.
Northern Burma original spearhead viper
Originally named in 1940, the type is found in the northern region of Myanmar's Golden Triangle. This snake belongs to the high-altitude forest mountain snake, its body color changes are quite different, and different habitats will be different. China was first discovered in 2004 in metuo, Tibet.
Origin from India
Female snakes have the behavior of egg protection, and two climbing scholars in China have reported the first record of successful artificial breeding.
Tibet Ink Istour Origin
Horned Viper
The old name is the two-horned iron-headed snake. The pattern originated at Phan Si Phan Pong Peak in northern Vietnam, first named in 1930. The distribution was first found in China in 2003, and the distribution area was initially limited to the Nanling area of Guangdong, and later found in other provinces in China such as Fujian, Guangxi and Zhejiang. The horned spearhead viper has a dotted distribution rather than the traditional flaky distribution.
The original spearhead pit viper in the township
Mr. Zhao Ermi, an amphibian and reptile expert in China, first named in 1979, was a new species discovered during an expedition in a rural city in Sichuan. It is endemic to China, and the distribution area is in the mountain forest at an altitude of about 3000 meters. This species has a narrow distribution area, is extremely rare in number, and is not well studied.
Mangshan original spearhead viper
Nicknamed Xiaoqinglong, it is an endemic species in China, which was first found in the Mangshan area of Hunan Province, and later found in a small amount at the junction of Mangshan and Guangdong Province. It is a large venomous snake with a dark brown body, interspersed with very small yellow-green or rust-colored spots, and a triangular head, up to 2 meters in size.
The size can be compared with the Giant Pit viper in South America, and they are still related to a certain extent. Mangshan original spearhead viper was first named in 1990, once released, shocked the world; but initially did not belong to the original spearhead viper genus, but the bamboo leaf green genus, and for nearly 20 years since then, the classification controversy about this snake has not stopped, until 2009 finally classified it into the original spearhead viper genus, and renamed Mangshan original spearhead viper. This snake is a first-class protected animal in China, and the number is extremely rare.
Dabie Mountain original spearhead viper
The endemic species in China were first discovered in the Dabie Mountains of Anhui Province, China in 2011, and new species records were released in 2012. Later, the distribution of this snake was found in Hunan Province and Henan Province.
The snake's form has distinct characteristics, its head is slightly triangular, its back is earthy yellow, and there are many dark brown stripes from the back of the head to the tail, and the edges of the stripes are black and jagged. Its abdomen is off-white , with a tightly arranged row of small orange dots on either side of its body , and a dark orange-red tip at the tip of its tail. The morphological characteristics of this proto-spearhead pit viper are obviously different from those of other proto-spearhead pit vipers that have been found at home and abroad.
Maolan original spearhead viper
Endemic species in China, first named in 2011, the model origin is located in Guizhou Libo Maolan Nature Reserve, also distributed in Guangxi, this snake is smaller, is the smallest pit viper in China.
Kiyama Hara spearhead viper
In 2012, researchers from domestic scientific research institutions in China discovered this snake in the Mount Everest National Conservation Area and identified it as a new species. The snake is also the only highland snake in the world that has a distribution above 4,000 meters.
The Xishan original spearhead viper is very large, the most characteristic is its red head, red eyes, fierce temperament, the largest individual is 1.5 meters long, is China's size is only this than the Mangshan original spearhead pit viper, living in the Everest Reserve, especially the southern slope of the Himalayas. Due to its long-term isolation, a very complete food chain has been preserved here. The discovery of the Hiyama original spearhead viper completely subverted the world's third pole impression of "desolation and scarcity of species" in the Himalayas, because the discovery of large poisonous snakes shows that the local species are diverse, and the local ecological environment is highly native and has not been destroyed.
China's pit vipers are rich in species and widely distributed, and they are all extremely rare snakes. Chinese scholars have made great contributions to the research of these pit vipers distributed in China, and have published a large number of research results, especially the sorting and screening of their taxonomic status.