If you discover something new, you get to name it. Now, when that discover is a new species of snake then what could be the better option than Salazar Slytherin, the founder of the Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It just makes total sense.
A team of Indian researchers are making the fictional world collide with the scientific one by naming a new species of snake they discovered — “Trimeresurus Salazar” — after Salazar Slytherin of Harry Potter.
That team of scientists recently discovered the new species of the green pit viper in an area of India known as the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. Their findings were published this month in the journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, reports CNN.
For those not familiar with Harry Potter, Salazar Slytherin was one of the founders of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Slytherin, partly known for his ability to talk to snakes, is linked to the animals — the snake is, after all, the symbol of the Slytherin Hogwarts house.
That’s why the researchers chose the name Trimeresurus Salazar, CNN further reports.
The team suggests the snake commonly be known as Salazar’s pit viper. Pit vipers in the genus Trimeresurus are venomous and found throughout East and Southeast Asia. This species was discovered in India, but there are at least 48 total species of this genus found in the region.
One of the things that make this particular pit viper stand out is a unique orange-reddish stripe, present on the side of the head and body in males, the reports reads.
“Future dedicated surveys conducted across northeastern India will help document biodiversity, which is under threat from numerous development activities that include road widening, agriculture, and hydro-electric projects,” said lead author Zeeshan Mirza of the National Centre for Biological Sciences in India.
