Daboia

Chain Viper ( Daboia russelii )

The Oriental vipers ( Daboia ) are a genus of the Real vipers, which are allocated based on current investigations, four species. The most famous Oriental Viper is the chain Viper ( Daboia russeli ). Oriental vipers are like all vipers poisonous, the bite of the chain and the Palestine Viper Viper is comparatively often fatal to humans.

Features

The types of oriental vipers reach body lengths of an average of 80 to 130 centimeters, especially the chain Viper can regionally but also reach lengths of 150 cm. The females are slightly larger than males usually.

Dissemination

The United vipers live mainly in the Middle East, large parts of Asia to Southeast Asia and North Africa. The chain Viper has the largest distribution area which they inhabited with several subspecies. It occurs on the Indian subcontinent with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, southern China and Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand, and some islands of Indonesia. The Palestine Viper ( Daboia Palaestinae ) can be found from the Gaza Strip and Israel on Lebanon to Syria. The Sahara Otter ( Daboia deserti ) lives in the north of Libya and Tunisia as well as in the southern Atlas in Algeria, while the Atlas Otter ( Daboia mauretanica ) is limited to the extreme north-west Africa in Morocco.

Fossil history

1988, a fossil viper named Daboia maxima was described based on 20 vertebrae by Zbigniew Szyndlar, which was placed in the direct relationship of the chain Viper due to the very similar vortex shape. Both species have very untypical high neural arches for other vipers. Daboia maximum lived in Spain in the mid- Pliocene, resulting in a larger distribution of the genus and the two types can be accepted in the Mediterranean at that time.

System

The genus of the Oriental vipers today includes four types:

• Sahara Otter (D. deserti )
• Atlas Otter (D. mauritanica )
• Palestine viper (D. Palaestinae )
• Russel's viper (D. russeli )

The genus Daboia was first described by John Edward Gray on the basis of the type species Daboia elegans, which is now synonymized with the chain Viper. The name Daboia was mentioned until the late 19th century, though the chain Viper was transferred to the genus Vipera. In 1983, the genus Daboia by F. J. Fruit reintroduced for different types of the former genus Vipera, including the Chain viper, the Levant viper ( today Macrovipera liver tina ) and the Asia Minor 's viper (now Montivipera xanthina ).

In 1992, a revision of the genus Vipera on the basis of biochemical characteristics in the Sahara Otter and the Atlas Otter together with the Levant viper ( Macrovipera lebetina ) and the Cyclades Viper (M. Swiss ) to the United vipers ( Macrovipera ), the Palestine viper as Vipera and the Russel's viper were classified as the only species of the genus Daboia.

By steering et al. 2001 this view has been questioned. Based on molecular biology, the sister group relationship of Levante Otter and Cyclades Viper does indeed hold, the African species (Sahara Otter and Atlas Otter ), however, were in the close relationship of the chain Viper ( Daboia russelii ) and the Palestine viper ( Daboia Palaestinae ) provided. Thus, belonging to the genus Macrovipera only the Levante Otter and the Cyclades Viper.

Other genera

True vipers (Vipera )

Montivipera

Great vipers: Macrovipera lebetina and Macrovipera Swiss

Daboia

These results were obtained by Garrigues et al. 2004 confirmed, after which the vipers, a European group of species from different Vipera species, an eastern group of the Montivipera species and the Levant Otter and a third African- Asian group consisting of Russel's viper, Palestine viper and the African Macrovipera species form. As in Lenk, et al. 2001, the genus of large vipers was paraphyletic, the Chain Viper ( Daboia russeli ) formed a taxon with the Palestine viper and the Atlas Otter ( Otter The Sahara and the Cyclades Viper were not part of the study). Mallow et al. 2003 arranged according to a Palestinian Otter in the genus, the Atlas Otter was 2008 by Wüster et al. based on the results of Lenk, et al. asked to Daboia.

Swell

Cited sources

The information in this article originate for the most part the limits given in literature sources, in addition, the following sources are cited: