4-foot-long creature found at abandoned island village. It's a new species
On a small island of Papua New Guinea, a 4-foot-long creature moved through the overgrown rainforest covering the site of an abandoned village. Its orange eyes scanned its surroundings, but it wasn't the only one looking around.
A visiting scientist noticed the scaly animal — and discovered a new species.
Fred Kraus visited Rossel Island as part of an ongoing project to document the region's reptile diversity. Scientists had visited the island in the 1950s and collected several snakes, but more recent researchers hadn't paid as much attention to the remote isle. Kraus wanted to change that, he wrote in a study published April 4 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
During his visit, Kraus found and caught several snakes with a 'unique' color pattern, the study said. Intrigued, he took a closer look at the animals, compared them with museum archives and soon realized he'd discovered a new species: Dendrelaphis melanarkys, or the black net tree snake.
Black net tree snakes are considered 'large,' reaching about 4 feet, 11 inches in length, the study said. They have 'smooth' scales, orange eyes and 'dark'-colored tongues.
A photo shows the new species' coloring. Kraus said he named the new species after the Greek words for 'black' and 'net' because of its black-edged scales and the resulting 'network'-like pattern.
Black net tree snakes were found in a rainforest, village gardens and 'the site of the former village of Bibikea, which the Australian government forcibly relocated to the coast at the end of World War II,' Kraus wrote.
During WWII, 'fighting took place across the island of New Guinea and in its nearby island chains,' according to The National WWII Museum. 'To the invaders from Japan, and (later) the occupiers from Australia and the United States, however, New Guineans appeared as colonial subjects at best, and as slaves at worst.'
So far, the new species has only been found on Rossel Island, a small island southeast of mainland Papua New Guinea and northeast of Australia, the study said. A video shared on YouTube in 2022 by BTC Media shows the island.
The new species was identified by its coloring, genitalia, scale pattern and other subtle physical features, Kraus said. The study did not include a DNA analysis of the new species.
Kraus also discovered three more species of snakes, one each on Misima Island, Sudest Island and Woodlark Island.
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