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Atheris
Sign in to saveAtheris is a genus of vipers known as bush vipers. They are found only in tropical subsaharan Africa (excluding southern Africa) and many species have isolated and fragmented distributions due to their confinement to rain forests. Like all other vipers, they are venomous. In an example of convergent evolution, they show many similarities to the arboreal pit vipers of Asia and South America. Seventeen species are currently recognized.
Species
African Bush Viper
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassSquamata
- FamilyViperidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 205
- With media
- 7
- Family
- Viperidae
- Collections
- CAS, UTA, USNM
- Recorded in
- Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Description
- Location
- Conservation status
- Behavior
- Captivity
- Venom
- Species
- Taxonomy
- References
- Further reading
Atheris is a genus of vipers known as bush vipers. They are found only in tropical subsaharan Africa (excluding southern Africa) and many species have isolated and fragmented distributions due to their confinement to rain forests. Like all other vipers, they are venomous. In an example of convergent evolution, they show many similarities to the arboreal pit vipers of Asia and South America. Seventeen species are currently recognized.
==Description== They are relatively small in size, with adults ranging in total length (body + tail) from for A. katangensis to a maximum of for A. squamigera.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Atheris” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.