Natural History Wanderings

MSN reported

On a rainy day in southern China, a 1-foot-long creature emerged from its hiding place and worked its way along a mountain road. Something about the iridescent animal caught the attention of locals – and for good reason.

It turned out to be a first-of-its-kind record.

A team of scientists visited southern Yunnan Province, near the China-Vietnam border, in April as part of a project to survey the region’s amphibians and reptiles, according to a study published Aug. 22 in the peer-reviewed Biodiversity Data Journal.

During the researchers’ visit, locals caught an unfamiliar-looking snake and showed it to the team, the study said. Researchers took a closer look at it, analyzed its DNA and identified it as a Zugs’ odd-scaled snake, or Achalinus zugorum.

Zugs’ odd-scaled snakes are a “poorly-known” and “enigmatic species” found in northern Vietnam and described as a new species in 2020, researchers said. Except for a single male snake, “no other specimens of this species have been reported so far.”

Read more and see photos at  Footlong creature found on rainy road in China in first-of-its-kind sighting