New species of Amazon anaconda discovered during filming of new Will Smith series

Record ID: 1769184

  • Title: New species of Amazon anaconda discovered during filming of new Will Smith series
  • Date: 29th February 2024
  • Summary: BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (FEBRUARY 25, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AT UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, BRYAN FRY, SAYING: "That snake is very big snake. It’s a little hard to judge the length, it’s certainly over 20 feet. I think to call it 26 feet may be a little bit of an exaggeration but it’s definitely one of the biggest anacondas ever filmed."
  • Embargoed: 14th March 2024 20:55
  • Keywords: Anaconda Brazil Discovery Mato Grosso Oil spill Species snake
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: South America / Central America,Life Sciences,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA006301523022024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Researchers in the Amazon have discovered the world's largest snake species - an enormous green anaconda - in Ecuador's rainforest that split off from its closest relatives 10 million years ago though they still nearly look identical to this day.
    Australian Professor Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland led an expedition with Will Smith at the Waorani lands, in Eastern Ecuador, in 2022 to get samples of their anacondas’ populations. The access was one of the handful granted since the tribe’s first contact in 1958, Fry said.
    The discovery took place as part of a broader study Fry and Dutch Professor Freek J. Vonk were carrying out on the impacts oil spills are having in the Yasuni Amazon, in Ecuador. The researchers collected samples from anacondas across nine countries.
    It was thought that there was only one species of green anaconda in the wild, the Eunectes murinus, but the scientific journal Diversity this month revealed that the new "northern green anaconda" belongs to a different, new species, Eunectes akiyama.
    Fry - an Australian professor of biology who for almost 20 years has been investigating anaconda species found in South America - told Reuters the discovery allows them to show that the two species split from each other almost 10 million years ago.
    Although green anaconda snakes are very similar visually, there is a genetic difference of 5.5%, which surprised the scientists.
    Footage shared by the researchers showed Vonk swimming next to an estimated 20-foot-long and over 200 kilo (441 pounds) Southern Green Anaconda on a riverbank in Matto Grosso do Sul state, in Brazil, and photographs of the recently-identified Northern Green Anaconda.
    The research, “Disentangling the Anacondas: Revealing a New Green Species and Rethinking Yellows,” was published at Diversity journal.
    (Production: Mariana Sandoval, Anna Portella)
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