One snake, five surprises: Comenius University scientist writes new story for Himalayan reptiles

Secrets of the Himalayan pit viper revealed in new study.

For the more than 160 years since its discovery, the Himalayan pit viper - a short and stocky venomous snake inhabiting the Himalaya and Hindu Kush - was thought to be a single species.

But now, an international team of researchers led by Daniel Jablonski, a researcher from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University Bratislava, has turned that thinking on its head.

Their work, published in the journal ZooKeys, has shown that there are in fact five species-level evolutionary lineages, three of which are completely new to science.

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