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Crotalus durissus
Crotalus durissus is a venomous pitviper species found in South America. The most widely distributed member of its genus,[1] this species poses a serious medical problem in many parts of its range.[4] Currently, 8 subspecies are recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.[5] Additional recommended knowledge
DescriptionGrows to a maximum length of about 180 cm.[1] Common namesSouth American rattlesnake,[1] tropical rattlesnake,[3] neotropical rattlesnake,[6] Guiana rattlesnake (previously used for C. d. dryinus).[7] Spanish: víbora de cascabel, cascabel, cascabela, cascavel.[1] Geographic rangeFound in in all South American countries except Ecuador and Chile. However, its range is discontinuous,[1] with many isolated populations in northern South America, including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and northern Brazil. It occurs in Colombia and eastern Brazil to southeastern Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina (Catamarca, Córdoba, Corrientes, Chaco, Entre Rios, Formosa, La Pampa, La Rioha, Mendoza, Misiones, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estro and Tucumán).[2] Also occurs on some islands in the Caribbean, including Morro de la Iguana, Tamarindo and Aruba.[1] The type locality given is "America."[2] HabitatPrefers savanna, caatinga and cerrado. It has been reported to occur in littoral xerophilous scrub, psammophilous and halophilous littoral grassland thorny xerophilous scrub, tropophilous deciduous and semidesciduous scrub, as well as tropophilous semidesciduous seasonal forest in the northwest of Venezuela. In the Chaco region of Paraguay, it is said to prefer the drier, sandier areas (Böckeler, 1988).[1] VenomBite symptoms are very different from those of Nearctic species[8] due to the presence of neurotoxins (crotoxin and crotamine) that cause progressive paralysis.[4] Bites from C. d. terrificus in particular can result in impaired vision or complete blindness, auditory disorders, ptosis, paralysis of the peripheral muscles, especially of the neck, which becomes so limp as to appear broken, and eventually life-threatening respiratory paralysis. The ocular disturbances, which according to Alvaro (1939) occur in some 60% of terrificus cases, are sometimes followed by permanent blindness.[8] Phospholipase A2 neurotoxins also cause damage to skeletal muscles and possibly the heart, causing general aches, pain and tenderness throughout the body. Myoglobin released into the blood results in dark urine. Other serious complications may result from systemic disorders (incoagulable blood and general spontaneous bleeding), hypotension and shock.[4] Hemorrhagins may be present in the venom, but any corresponding effects are completely overshadowed by the startling and serious neurotoxic symptoms.[8] Subspecies
TaxonomyThe Guiana rattlesnake, previously recognized as C. d. dryinus,[2] is now considered a synonym for C. d. durissus. In fact, after the previous nominate subspecies for the durissus complex became the current nominate for C. simus, which now represents its Mexican and Central American members, C. d. dryinus became the new nominate for the South American rattlesnakes as represented by C. durissus.[1] The subspecies previously known as C. d. collilineatus and C. d. cascavella were moved to the synonymy of C. d. terrificus following the publication of a paper by Wüster et al. in 2005. See also
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Crotalus_durissus". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |