Himalayan Pit Viper Long Treated as One Species Is Actually Five, Three New to Science

An international team led by Daniel Jablonski of Comenius University in Bratislava has shown that the elusive Himalayan pit viper, described as a single species back in 1864, is in fact a complex of five distinct species. Three of them are entirely new to science, including Gloydius hindukushensis and Gloydius nepalensis, spread across Pakistan, Nepal and the Hindu Kush.

The researchers cracked the 160-year puzzle by combining DNA from both fresh field samples and historical museum specimens with morphology, skull anatomy and ecological data. Collaborators came from Museum Koenig, the Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin and the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, underscoring how old collections still drive new discoveries.

"Museum specimens are not just records of the past, they are active research tools," the team noted. The findings, published May 25 in the open-access journal ZooKeys, reshape the map of venomous snake diversity across High Asia and could inform antivenom and conservation work in the region.