Sssay hello to Costa Rica’s new venomous snake

An international team of scientists has solved a case of mistaken identity and discovered a new species of venomous snake.
The newly discovered Talamancan Palm-Pitviper is a striking green-and-black snake living in some of the most remote regions of Costa Rica. The coloring is a characteristic it shares with its close relative the Black-Speckled Palm-Pitviper. In fact, these two species look so similar that the Talamancan Palm-Pitviper went unrecognized for more than 100 years. It is a case of cryptic speciation, where two species look almost identical, but are genetically different.

Sssay hello to Costa Rica’s new venomous snake