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Startled Snake Horks Up New Chameleon Species
British scientist startled reptile before it could digest dinner
By Will McCahill
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Posted Nov 23, 09 7:41 PM CST
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(Newser)
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A Tanzanian snake so startled by a British researcher that it threw up its still-undigested dinner in fact horked up a previously unknown species of chameleon. Andrew Marshall tells the Guardian he was surveying monkeys in the Magombera forest when he tripped over the nervous twig snake; though worried about the venom that killed the creature, he ascertained that the erstwhile meal was indeed a new find.
Marshall made the discovery in 2005, but it’s only official now that he’s published it. And though he earned the naming rights, Marshall gave it a moniker reflecting its habitat: Kinyongia magomberae. Was he tempted to work Marshall in somehow? “Oh crumbs, no. The thing is, if you work in an area of conservation importance and you can give a species the name of that area it can really highlight that area. By giving it the name Magombera it raises the importance of the forest.”