Oriental vipers
| Oriental vipers | ||||||||||||
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Chain viper ( Daboia russelii ) |
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| Daboia | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1842 |
The oriental vipers ( Daboia ) are a genus of the real vipers , to which four recent species are assigned according to current studies . The best-known oriental viper is the chain viper ( Daboia russelii ). Oriental vipers, like all vipers, are poisonous; the bite of the chain viper and the Palestinian viper is comparatively often fatal to humans.
features
The species of the oriental vipers reach body lengths of 80 to 130 centimeters on average, especially the chain viper can reach lengths of 150 centimeters regionally. The females are usually slightly larger than the males.
distribution
The grand vipers live mainly in the Middle East , large parts of Asia to Southeast Asia and North Africa. The chain viper has the largest distribution area, which it inhabits with several subspecies. It occurs on the Indian subcontinent with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, on Sri Lanka, in southern China and on Taiwan, in Myanmar, in Thailand and on some islands of Indonesia. The Palestine Aviper ( Daboia palaestinae ) can be found from the Gaza Strip and Israel via Lebanon to Syria. The Sahara otter ( Daboia deserti ) lives in northern Libya and Tunisia as well as in the southern Atlas in Algeria , while the Atlas otter ( Daboia mauretanica ) is limited to the extreme north-west of Africa in Morocco .
Fossil history
In 1988 Zbigniew Szyndlar described a fossil viper species called Daboia maxima on the basis of 20 vertebrae, which, due to the very similar shape of the vertebrae, was directly related to the chain viper. Both species have high neural arches, which are very atypical for other vipers . Daboia maxima lived in Spain in the middle Pliocene , which means that a greater distribution of the genus or the two species in the Mediterranean area can be assumed at this time.
Systematics
The genus of the Oriental vipers today contains four species:
- Sahara otter ( D. deserti )
- Atlas otter ( D. mauritanica )
- Palestine aviper ( D. palaestinae )
- Chain viper ( D. russelii )
The genus Daboia was first described by John Edward Gray on the basis of the type species Daboia elegans , which is now synonymous with the chain viper. The name Daboia was mentioned until the late 19th century, although the chain viper was transferred to the genus Vipera . In 1983 the genus Daboia was reintroduced by FJ Obst for various species of the then genus Vipera , including the chain viper, the Levant otter (now Macrophia lebertina ) and the mountain otter of Asia Minor (now Montivipera xanthina ).
In 1992 the genus Vipera was revised on the basis of biochemical characteristics, in which the Sahara otter and the Atlas otter together with the Levant otter ( Macrophia lebetina ) and the Cycladic viper ( M. schweizeri ) to the great vipers ( Macrophia ), the Palestinian viper as Vipera and the Chain viper as the only species in the genus Daboia were classified.
By Lenk et al. However, in 2001 this view was challenged. On a molecular-biological basis, the sister-group relationship between the Levant otter and the Cycladic viper can be maintained, the African species (Sahara otter and Atlas otter), on the other hand, are more closely related to the chain viper ( Daboia russelii ) and the Palestinian viper ( Daboia palaestinae ). Accordingly, only the Levant otter and the Cycladic viper belong to the genus Macroocket .
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These results were confirmed by Garrigues et al. Confirmed in 2004, according to which the vipers form a European species group from different Vipera species, an oriental group from the Montivipera species and the Levant otter and a third African-Asiatic group consisting of chain viper, Palestinian viper and the African Macroocket species. As with Lenk et al. In 2001 the genus of the great vipers was paraphyletic, the chain viper ( Daboia russelii ) formed a taxon with the Palestine viper and the Atlas viper ( the Sahara otter and the Cycladic viper were not part of the study). Mallow et al. 2003 accordingly classified the Palestine otter in the genus, the Atlas otter was named by Wüster et al. based on the results of Lenk et al. put to Daboia .
swell
Sources cited
Most of the information in this article has been taken from the sources given under literature; the following sources are also cited:
- ↑ Zbigniew Szyndlar: Two new extinct species of the Genera Malpolon and Vipera (Reptilia; Serpentes) from the Pliocene of Layna (Spain). In: Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia. 31, pp. 687-706.
- ↑ Zbigniew Szyndlar, Jean-Claude Rage: Fossil Record of the True Vipers. In: Gordon W. Schutt, Mats Höggren, Michael E. Douglas, Harry W. Greene (Eds.): Biology of the Vipers. Eagle Mountain Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0-9720154-0-X , pp. 419-444.
- ^ H.-W Herrmann, U. Joger & G. Nilson: Phylogeny and systematics of viperine snakes. III: resurrection of the genus Macroektivena (Reuss, 1927) as suggested by biochemical evidence. In: Amphibia-Reptilia. 13, 1992, pp. 375-392
- ↑ P. Lenk, S. Kalayabina, M. Wink & U. Joger: Evolutionary relationships among the true vipers (Reptilia: Viperidae) inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 19, 2001, pp. 94-104 ( full text PDF; 139.5 kB ).
- ↑ Thomas Garrigues, Catherine Dauga, Elisabeth Ferquel, Valérie Choumet and Anna-Bella Failloux: Molecular phylogeny of Vipera Laurenti, 1768 and the related genera Macroypena (Reuss, 1927) and Daboia (Gray, 1842), with comments about neurotoxic Vipera aspis aspis populations. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Volume 35, No. 1, 2005, pp. 35-47.
- ↑ David Mallow, David Ludwig, Göran Nilson: True Vipers. Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers . Krieger Publishing Company Malabar, Florida, 2003, ISBN 0-89464-877-2 , pp. 141-159.
- ↑ Wolfgang Wüster, Lindsay Peppin, Catharine E. Pook, Daniel E. Walker: A nesting of vipers: Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the Viperidae (Squamata: Serpentes). In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 49, 2008, pp. 445-459.
literature
- David Mallow, David Ludwig, Göran Nilson: True Vipers. Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Krieger Publishing Company Malabar, Florida, 2003, ISBN 0-89464-877-2 , pp. 141-159.
