Disentangling the myth of the singing bushmaster viper with the help of tree frogs
Thursday, November 17, 2016 - 03:51
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Reaching over 3.5 m in length, the bushmaster (belonging in the Lachesis genus) is the largest viper in the western hemisphere. Legend spread among both colonists and natives from the Amazon region and Central America has it that it sings. Finding these numerous unrelated reports quite puzzling, since it is well known that snakes cannot sing, scientists took to finally disentangle the myth.