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Bitis nasicornis (SHAW & NODDER, 1792)

IUCN Red List - Bitis nasicornis - Vulnerable, VU
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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  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesTypes: Unlocated. Reportedly (Shaw, 1802: 400) in the British Museum but not identi- fiable from the listings in Boulenger (1896: 500-501). 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 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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