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A new Subgenus of Giant Snakes (Anaconda) from South America (Serpentes: Boidae)
Abstract
A review of the taxonomy of the New World boids finds several genera as currently recognized to be paraphyletic. There are available genus names for those species within genera that have been found to be composite, should they be split to ensure monophyletic genera. The only potential exception to this is within the genus Eunectes Wagler, 1830 as currently recognized. There is a strong argument in favor of splitting the so-called Yellow Anacondas away from the so-called Green Anacondas, at the genus level as a result of clear and consistent differences between the relevant taxa. This paper formalizes this division by taking a conservative position and naming and defining a new subgenus, Maxhoserboa subgen. nov. for the Yellow Anaconda and related species.
This is a rebuttal of a dangerous and dishonest blog by Hinrich Kaiser and eight other renegades. These are Mark O’Shea, Wolfgang Wüster, Wulf Schleip, Paulo Passos, Hidetoshi Ota, Luca Luiselli, Brian Crother and
Christopher Kelly. It was published in Herpetological Review (Kaiser et al. 2013). The journal is edited by one of the authors (Schleip) and the “paper” evidently bypassed all standard peer review and editorial quality
control as outlined in the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) ethics statement (Anonymous 2013a), the SSAR being publisher.
Kaiser et al. make numerous false and defamatory statements against this author (Raymond Hoser) as part of an obsessive 15-year campaign.
The claims made without evidence against Hoser are in fact shown to be true for the accusers.
These include, “evidence free taxonomy”, fraud, “unscientific taxonomic publications”, “taxonomic terrorism”, plagiarisation, “unscientific taxonomy”, “unscientific practices”, “unscientific incursions” and “deliberate acts of intellectual kleptoparasitism”.
Kaiser et al. seek to break and destroy the rules of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al. 1999) including the three critical rules of:
1/ Homonymy (Principal 5, Article 52 and elsewhere),
2/ Priority (Principal 3, Article 23 and elsewhere),
3/ Stability (Principal 4, Articles 23, 65 and elsewhere),
as well as the ethics of the Code (Appendix A).
They seek to do this in the first instance by boycotting established nomenclature and the established rules in a war plan that must by their own account run for decades (Kaiser et al. 2013, p. 20).
They then seek coin their own names for hundreds of taxa already properly named by others and attempting to take credit for the research work of the earlier authors. This will create unprecedented taxonomic instability
and confusion.
Their actions will effectively:
1/ Freeze the progress of herpetological taxonomy and if copied, perhaps all of zoology;
2/ Put lives at risk;
3/ Increase the likelihood of extinctions of rarer taxa.
Their alleged loophole in the Zoological Code which they assert allows them to create hundreds invalid junior synonyms to usurp the proper names, as quoted by them, does not in fact exist!
This is because Kaiser et al. misquoted the Zoological Rules in their badly written paper.
Furthermore the repeated claim by Kaiser et al. to have the official backing of the ICZN for their scheme is also shown to be a lie.
Keywords: Hinrich Kaiser; Wulf Schleip; Wolfgang Wüster; Mark O’Shea; Peter Uetz; Raymond Hoser; Richard Wells;
Herpetological Review; Australasian Journal of Herpetology; Australian Biodiversity Record; Journal of Herpetology;
peer review; fraud; ethics; taxonomy; ICZN; rules; nomenclature; homonymy; priority; stability; synonym; boycott;
Leiopython; Laudakia; Adelynkimberlea; Spracklandus.
The way that herpetologists have traditionally measuredlive snakes is by stretching them on a ruler andrecording the total length (TL). However, due to the thinconstitution of the snake, the large number of intervertebraljoints, and slim muscular mass of most snakes,it is easier to stretch a snake than it is to stretch anyother vertebrate. The result of this is that the length ofa snake recorded is infl uenced by how much the animalis stretched. Stretching it as much as possible is perhapsa precise way to measure the length of the specimenbut it might not correspond to the actual length ofa live animal. Furthermore, it may seriously injure a livesnake. Another method involves placing the snake in aclear plexiglass box and pressing it with a soft materialsuch as rubber foam against a clear surface. Measuringthe length of the snake may be done by outlining itsbody with a string (Fitch 1987; Frye 1991). However, thismethod is restricted to small animals that can be placedin a box, and in addition, no indications of accuracy of thetechnique are given. Measuring the snakes with a fl exibletape has also been reported (Blouin-Demers 2003)but when dealing with a large animals the way the tapeis positioned can produce great variance on the fi nal outcome.In this contribution we revise alternative ways tomeasuring a snake and propose a method that offers repeatableresults. We further analyze the precision of thismethod by using a sample of measurements taken fromwild populations of green anacondas (Eunectes murinus)with a large range of sizes.
The anaconda Eunectes murinus (Linnaeus, 1758) inhabits large hydrographic basins in tropical America and figures among the world's largest snakes, attaining a length of 12 m. This study analyzed the growth of three female anaconda siblings, with records from their birth in captivity up to around 14 months of age. The snakes were kept in a controlled environment with constant temperature and data related to biometry, feeding and skin shedding were recorded. At the end of these 445 days, the siblings had grown on average 2.6 times their initial length and increased their initial weight by 3830.10g, incorporating about 43.5% of total food ingested to their body mass. They showed a total of 0.69 skin sheddings per month in that period, and did not exhibit significant differences in shedding intervals, nor in body growth (weight and length), when compared among themselves. Food was refused at times, coinciding with the days that preceded the ecdyses. Sheddings do not seem to be explained by feeding or growth, which suggests a relation to other endogenous factors. A more detailed study of this species is needed to better understand its growth to the adult phase and its hormonal levels during growth.
Evidence that female anacondas may eat males, likely during the breeding season
We describe a case of dicephalism in a yellow anaconda snake, Eunectes notaeus, from southern Pantanal, Brazil. The specimen exhibits two heads and two long necks, which are united on the anterior third of the body. Two hearts, three lungs, two livers, and two stomachs are also present. The left heart is larger and more cranial than the right heart although they are in the normal position. Radiographs revealed approximately 64 vertebrae in the right neck, 57 in the left neck, eight in the fusion zone, 202 in the trunk, and 52 in the tail. According to the classification adopted in the present study the specimen herein described is a proarchodichotomous specimen. This is the first record of dicephalism in Eunectes. Further, this snake represents the 28th documented case of dicephalism within the family Boidae and the 1088th case in snakes.
The extant genus Eunectes was first reported for the Middle Miocene of Colombia, represented by the extinct species Eunectes stirtoni. Here, we describe vertebral remains referable to this genus collected in the Neogene Solimões Formation at the Talismã locality, situated on the right-hand bank upstream of the Purus River, in the South of Amazonas State, Brazil. The material consists of isolated mid- and posterior trunk vertebrae characterized by the following combination of features that distinguishes the genus from other Neotropical boids: large size, slightly depressed neural arch, relatively low neural spine, robust and moderately thick zygosphene, with a prominent median tubercle, paracotylar foramen irregularly present, and a strong lateroventral projection of the paradiapophyses on the posterior trunk vertebrae. The presence of Eunectes in the Solimões Formation represents the first fossil record of snakes from the southwestern Brazilian Amazonia and supports the origin of this genus in the Miocene or before.
We provide a checklist of the herpetofaunal assemblage from Espora Hydroelectric Power Plant region(UHE Espora), southwestern of the state of Goiás, Brazil. Representatives of 32 amphibian and 71 reptile species wereobtained during faunal monitoring and faunal rescue programs carried out in the study area. The obtained species listand distribution records are here discussed in an attempt to improve the still limited knowledge on Cerradoherpetofaunal assemblages.
Reptiles can harbor pathogenic microorganisms asymptomatically and serve as potential reservoirs of infection for humans, domestic animals, and other reptiles. Infectious diseases are also problematic for free-ranging reptile populations and are an important consideration in reptile reintroduction and translocation projects. There have been limited serologic studies of free-ranging reptiles for evidence of exposure to potential pathogens. In the present study, serum or plasma samples from five male and five female free-ranging Venezuelan anacondas (Eunectes murinus) were screened for antibodies to eastern, western, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses, vesicular stomatitis virus, ophidian paramyxovirus, 19 Leptospira interrogans serovars, and Cryptosporidium serpentes. Antibodies to these agents were not detected, or antibody titers were low and possibly nonspecific. These results for the limited number of anacondas surveyed suggest that they do not serve as significant reservoirs for these infectious agents at this location.
Since the early 1970s, boine snakes (Boidae: Boinae) have served as a prime example of a group whose current distribution was shaped by vicariant events associated with the fragmentation of the supercontinent Gondwana. Early phylogenetic treatments of this group, and what were thought to be closely related groups (Erycinae and Pythoninae) based on morphological features, produced a relatively stable view of relationships that has strongly influenced subsequent molecular-based work. We examined 4307 base pairs (bp) of nucleotide sequence data obtained from five nuclear loci (c-mos, NT3, BDNF, RAG1, and ODC) and one mitochondrial locus (cyt b) for all genera of erycines and boines, plus representatives of other groups, including those previously thought to be closely allied with boines (Ungaliophiidae, Loxocemidae, Xenopeltidae, and Pythoninae). Our results suggest that the Boidae is not monophyletic, and its current division into three subfamilies (Erycinae, Boinae, and Pythoninae) does not accurately reflect evolutionary history. We find that the evolutionary relationships are better reflected by current geographic distributions and tectonic history than by the morphological characters that have long served as the foundation of boid phylogeny. Divergence time estimates suggest that this strong congruence between geography and phylogeny is the result of several vicariant and dispersal events in the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene associated with the fragmentation of the Gondwanan supercontinent. Our results demonstrate the importance of both vicariance and dispersal in shaping the global distributions of terrestrial organisms.
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