The rim rock crowned snake was discovered dead in the Florida Keys, secured lifeless fight with a giant centipede it had handled to swallow midway. Credit: Drew Martin
The snake was just recently found for the very first time in four years.
After a four-year absence, the rarest snake in North America, the Tantilla oolitica (rim rock crowned snake), was just recently discovered at a park in the Florida Keys. The snake encounter was more of a source of amazing wonder than anything else, in spite of the fact that this would usually be a reason for happiness among conservationists. The snake was found dead, taken part in a lifeless battle with a huge centipede that it had partly swallowed.
The lethal confrontation is the first time the snakes feeding habits have actually been observed by experts. It is understood that closely comparable types love centipedes, T. oolitica is so rare that no one was sure what it consumed up until now. The interlocked pair was CT scanned by Florida Museum of Natural History scientists, who just recently reported their findings in the journal Ecology.
” I was amazed when I initially saw the images,” said co-author Coleman Sheehy, the Florida Museums herpetology collection supervisor. “Its extremely uncommon to find specimens that died while eating prey, and given how unusual this types is, I would never ever have anticipated discovering something like this. We were all totally flabbergasted.”
After a four-year lack, the rarest snake in North America, the Tantilla oolitica (rim rock crowned snake), was recently found at a park in the Florida Keys. The snake was discovered dead, engaged in a lifeless battle with a huge centipede that it had partly swallowed.
Given that the centipede was only one-third the size of the snake, asphyxiation would be the most apparent theory. The design revealed a small wound on the snakes side, likely imparted by the centipedes powerful venomous pinchers. Snakes that commonly dine on centipedes are believed to have some step of resistance to their mélange of caustic venom, but that assumption has yet to be definitively shown, Sheehy said.
The deadly duel marks the very first time that scientists have actually observed the snakes eating habits. Credit: Florida Museum picture by Jerald Pinson
The snake was first found by a hiker in Key Largos John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, who then notified park workers. In order to identify the accurate cause of death, the specimen was quickly sent to experts at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Provided that the centipede was just one-third the size of the snake, asphyxiation would be the most apparent theory. However snakes have a reputation for devouring victim that is far larger than they are. Snake jaws are kept in place by flexible ligaments and muscles that allow them to cover their heads around their victim, in contrast to human beings and most of other vertebrate jaws that are straight attached to the skull.
Researchers would require to look within in order to be specific. This used to need a dissection, which triggers irreversible damage and might restrain future research. More recently, scientists have turned to CT-scanning technology, which provides an unrivaled view of an organisms anatomy without harming the specimen.
Jaimi Gray, a postdoctoral partner at the museum, stained the snake with an iodine service to improve the contrast of its internal tissues and constructed a fine-scaled 3D model from CT scans.
” We were able to perform a digital autopsy, which permitted us to take a look at the centipede and snake, including its injuries and gut contents, without ever picking up a scalpel,” she said. After scanning, the specimen was de-stained and now stays undamaged on collection racks at the Florida Museum for future scientists to study.
The design exposed a small injury on the snakes side, likely imparted by the centipedes powerful poisonous pinchers. Snakes that frequently dine on centipedes are believed to have some step of resistance to their mélange of caustic venom, but that presumption has yet to be definitively shown, Sheehy said. The bite appeared to cause some internal bleeding, but neither that nor the toxic substance was enough to prevent the snake from killing and partially swallowing its victim.
Instead, the final blow seems to have been dealt by the centipedes size. Close assessment of the CT scans reveals the snakes trachea was pinched at the approximate place where the centipedes circumference was the biggest, cutting off its air supply.
The outcomes offer an intimate peek of a types many fear is on the brink of termination. When grew in pine rocklands that spread out from Central Florida south to the Keys but has since gone through a serious decrease in population size, tantilla oolitica. The species has actually been listed as threatened in Florida given that 1975, and efforts are underway by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the species federally noted.
Pine rockland communities evolved for millions of years along the spine of an ancient coral reef, harboring a long list of uncommon plants and animals found no place else on Earth. The same qualities that cultivated the development of hyperdiverse forests also made this part of Florida a perfect location to develop towns and cities.
” We cant state for sure whether or not theyre still present in peninsular Florida. Absence of evidence is not proof of lack, but their environment has essentially been ruined,” Sheehy said.
For now, researchers are encouraged by what appears to be a rather stable population of T. oolitica in Key Largo and plan to make as much use of the new specimen as possible. The CT scans are available online or complimentary, and theres no shortage of new information that can be obtained from them.
According to Shefehy, anybody thinking about this specimen can access the CT-scan information to look at other aspects of the snakes anatomy, and since this is the first CT scan for the species, theyll be the very first people to make those discoveries. “This research study is just the start of what will be discovered this enigmatic types from the CT-scan information,” he said.
Reference: “What killed the rarest snake in North America?” by Kevin M. Enge, Jaimi A. Gray, Coleman M. Sheehy III, Trudy Ferraro, Drew M. Martin and Jonathan D. Mays, 4 September 2022, Ecology.DOI: 10.1002/ ecy.3857.