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Bitis nasicornis (SHAW & NODDER, 1792)

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Higher TaxaViperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Rhinoceros Viper
G: Nashornviper 
SynonymColuber nasicornis SHAW & NODDER 1792 (unnumbered page before plate 94)
Coluber nasicornis SHAW 1802: 397
Vipera nasicornis – DAUDIN 1803: 322
Cerastes nasicornis — WAGLER (fide HALLOWELL 1857: 62)
Clotho nasicornis – GRAY 1842: 69
Vipera hexacera DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1416
Echidna nasicornis – HALLOWELL 1857: 62
Vipera nasicornis — BOETTGER 1889: 281
Bitis nasicornis – BÜTTIKOFER 1890
Bitis nasicornis – BOULENGER 1896: 500
Bitis nasicornis — SCHMIDT 1923: 143
Bitis (Macrocerastes) nasicornis — LENK et al. 1999
Bitis nasicornis — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 364
Bitis nasicornis — RÖDEL & MAHSBERG 2000
Bitis nasicornis — DOBIEY & VOGEL 2007
Bitis (Macrocerastes) nasicornis — WITTENBERG et al. 2014
Bitis nasicornis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 93
Bitis nasicornis — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 579
Bitis (Macrocerastes) nasicornis — BARLOW et al. 2019
Bitis nasicornis — SENTER & CHIPPAUX 2022 
DistributionRepublic of South Sudan (RSS), W Kenya, Uganda, Angola, W/C/E Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea (Conakry), Central African Republic, Tanzania, Zambia

Type locality: Inner Africa  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesTypes: Unlocated. Reportedly (Shaw, 1802: 400) in the British Museum but not identi- fiable from the listings in Boulenger (1896: 500-501). 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (3833 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Some authors, e.g. McDiarmid et al. 1999: 364 have argued that the original author is SHAW 1792: 94 who illustrated and described this species. However, Shaw 1792 didn’t use a binomial and only called it the Horn-nosed Snake, hence the name was apparently only coined in 1802.

Distribution: For a map with localities in Equatorial Guinea see SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS et al. 2022. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin nasus = nose and cornu = horn ofanimals; the scales form two horn-like projections on the snout. 
References
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