A new dwarf boa species from Ecuador

In News

• Scientists have discovered a new species of dwarf boa in the Ecuadoran Amazon and named it after an Indigenous activist.

About Dwarf Boa

• The snake from the Tropidophiidae family was found in the cloud forest in northeastern Ecuador and was up to 20 centimetres long. 
• Tropidophis cacuangoae can be identified from other reptiles in the same genus based on its external features and bone structure.
• The scientists found two verified specimens of the species. 
  • Its colouring is primarily light brown with darker brown or black blotches — similar to a boa constrictor. 
  • The species inhabits eastern tropical piedmont and lower evergreen montane forests in the Amazon tropical rainforest biome and the researchers suspect it to be an Ecuadorian endemic. 
  • The species is unusual for having a “vestigial pelvis”, which is characteristic of primitive snakes. 
    • This could be evidence that snakes descended from lizards that lost their limbs over millions of years. 
• History of naming: The snake’s name honours Dolores Cacuango, an early 20th-century pioneer in the fight for indigenous and farmers’ rights in Ecuador.

Significance of the discovery 

• The discovery of T cacuangoae demonstrates that small and cryptic vertebrates can undergo large periods of time without being detected and formally describe by science.
• The discovery of this new species highlights a critical need to accelerate research in remote areas where information gaps remain but are suspected of harbouring high biodiversity and are severely threatened by human impacts.

Source:TH