Huge new species of snakes found in the Amazon jungle
Researchers in the Amazon have discovered the world’s largest snake species, a gigantic green anaconda in Ecuador’s rainforest. It split off from its closest relatives 10 million years ago and yet looks nearly identical now.
The size of these 6.1-meter-long reptiles is demonstrated in an internet video featuring Dutch biologist Freek Vonk is one of the researchers and were swimming next to a massive 200-kg specimen.
The Eunectes murinus was once thought to be the only species of green anaconda found in the wild. However, research published in the scientific journal Diversity in February 2024 revealed that the recently discovered “northern green anaconda” actually belonged to a brand-new species called Eunectes akiyama.
Researcher Bryan G. Fry said that we were there to use the anacondas as an indicator species to determine the extent of damage caused by the oil spills that are afflicting the Yasuni in Ecuador as a result of completely uncontrollably excessive oil extraction.
Professor Fry is an Australian biology professor at the University of Queensland who has spent over 20 years studying South American anaconda species the discovery enables them to demonstrate that the two species split from one another approximately 10 million years ago. He said “But the really amazing part was despite this genetic difference, and despite their long period of divergence the two animals are completely identical.”
Professor Fry said that anacondas are extremely valuable sources of information for the area’s ecological health as well as the possible effects of oil spills on human health.
It astonished the scientists that there is a 5.5% genetic difference between green anaconda snakes despite their striking visual similarity.
