QUITO, Ecuador – A new species has been discovered in Ecuadoran Amazon, a dwarf boa named Tropidophis cacuangoae.
It was named in honor of early 20th-century Indigenous activist Dolores Cacuango.
The species is 7.8 inches or 20 centimeters long with a skin color likely the same as a boa constrictor.
Ecuadoran researcher Mario Yanez of the National Biodiversity Institute (INABIO) said the snakes “are a relic of time, they are animals so old that finding or bumping into one of them is a privilege”.
The discoverers said that there were two specimens found in the Colonso Chalupas national reserve and in the private Sumak Kawsay park.
The species have a unique characteristic since it has a “vestigial pelvis”, a feature that can be found in primitive snakes which were taken as evidence to prove that some snakes descended from lizards but lost limbs over millions of years.
The dwarf boa is the 6th Tropidophis species that is endemic to South America.
