New creature with 'blade-shaped fangs' discovered in a Thailand cave

• Reptile hunters scaled a climb 50-foot cliff to catch samples of the new species 
• READ MORE: New worm species discovered in Utah lake’s ‘extreme salt levels’

Two reptile hunters have discovered a new species of snake with ‘blade-like’ fangs in Thailand.

This slithering animal, they report, also has strongly ridged scales on its underbelly that allow it to ‘climb vertical rock faces.’

‘It is especially adapted to life in this harsh environment,’ said one of the reptile hunters, who named their find the ‘Cave Kukri Snake’ or, Oligodon speleoserpens, after its unforgiving home in Thailand’s limestone karst mountain caves.

Evolutionary biologists who assisted these reptile hunters in categorizing their new snake said the creature’s two ‘enlarged blade-shaped maxillary teeth’ and its mountaineering ridges offered ‘strong evidence’ indicative of a brand new species.

While only three specimens of the new snake were captured for study, those samples were enough to positively ID it as a new species, thanks to its ‘climbing grip’ underbelly. Top right (d), the inflated ‘hemipenes’ or reproductive organs of the male Cave Kukri Snake specimen

The new snake had been spotted climbing up a nearly 50-foot cliff face, the researcher said. ‘This was incredibly risky but I had no option but to

The reptile hunters had to climb five stories high to obtain samples of the new species.

Harry Ward-Smith, a young reptile expert who has worked for Thailand’s Sakaerat Conservation and Snake Education Team, reported that one example or ‘paratype’ of the new Cave Kukri Snake had been caught climbing up a nearly 50-foot cliff face.

‘This was incredibly risky but I had no option but to “free solo” (climbing talk for no ropes),’ Ward-Smith shared on an April 26th Facebook notice.

‘I knew the importance of this snake,’ the Bangor University-trained herpetologist, or reptile zoologist said, ‘and was not going to let it escape us under any circumstance.’

Ward-Smith’s partner on this dangerous mission through the mountainous Trang and Satun provinces in Southern Thailand, Rupert Grassby-Lewis of the wildlife tourism group Explore Herpetology, described the find as ‘extremely meaningful.’

READ MORE: ‘Mind-blowing’ deep sea expedition discovers over 100 never-before-seen species near huge underwater mountain off the coast of Chile

‘It has an absolutely fascinating ecology, living within and around caves on steep limestone karst bluffs, feeding exclusively on reptile eggs,’ Grassby-Lewis said.

Grassby-Lewis, a herpetologist and tour guide, said that the new snake preys mostly upon the eggs of two local species of gecko, Cnemaspis and Cyrtodactylus, both expert navigators of rocky terrain as well.

Reptile researchers with Lomonosov Moscow State and the University of Michigan, who aided the young reptile hunters in getting their new findings published, said more specimens of the snake may exist deep in the mountains’ underground caves.

‘These speculations can only be confirmed if additional observations of O. speleoserpens are made in the future,’ the scientists wrote in their paper, published this April in the journal Vertebrate Zoology.

The body of the cave-dwelling, cliffhanging snake is a light-medium brown, with a lighter shade towards its head and black borders around its individual scales.

While only three specimens of the new snake were captured for this first study, those samples were enough to positively identify O. speleoserpens as a new species, thanks in part to its ‘climbing grip’ underbelly.

Two adventuring reptile hunters have discovered a new snake species with ‘blade-like’ fangs in Thailand, now confirmed by an international team of biologists. This ‘Cave Kukri Snake’ also has strongly ridged or ‘keeled’ scales on its underbelly, allowing it to ‘climb vertical rock faces’

The academic reptile researchers with Lomonosov Moscow State and the University of Michigan, who aided the young reptile hunters in getting their new find published, said more specimens of the snake (a) may exist deep in underground caves along the mountains (b)

‘The presence of keeled ventral scales,’ the researchers wrote, ‘help maintain traction on rough, vertical surfaces.’

The densely packed mountains the mark the border between Thailand’s southern Trang and Satun provinces are known as a ‘massif’ to geologists, who use the term to denote craggy regions created by the mashing tectonic faults or so-called ‘flexures.’

The reptile-hunting duo had initiated their expedition looking for samples of a completely different, recently discovered species: the Trimeresurus ciliaris, or ‘limestone eyelash pitviper.’

The discovery was a homecoming for Grassby-Lewis who had first explored the region as a teenager.

‘Trang was where I lived when I was 16-17 and first learned the ropes of “herping” [reptile hunting] in South-East Asia,’ the young researcher said. ‘Having my first ever new taxa of snake be described from this province is extremely meaningful to me.’

Read more