A new snake family was identified – Micrelapidae. The newly identified family includes only three species, two in Africa and one in Israel.
A rare scientific discovery: Prof. Shai Meiri of TAU’s School of Zoology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and of The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History Museum, took part in an extensive international study that identified a new family of snakes: Micrelapidae.
According to the researchers, Micrelaps, small snakes usually with black and yellow rings, diverged from the rest of the evolutionary tree of snakes about 50 million years ago. As far as we know the new family includes only three species, one in Israel and neighboring countries, and two in East Africa.
According to the researchers their findings indicate that Micrelaps diverged from the rest of the evolutionary tree of snakes about 50 million years ago. Since then, these snakes have evolved independently, as a distinct and separate family.
Apparently, this is a very small family, including only three species: two in Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, and one in Israel and nearby regions (northern Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, southern Syria, and southern Lebanon). This geographic dispersion suggests that these snakes probably originated in Africa, and then, at some point in their history, some of them made their way north through the Great Rift Valley.