‘Ghost’ green mamba rediscovered decades after its 1885 discovery in São Tomé

A green mamba specimen from São Tomé Island that dates back to 1885 has been found after decades of being regarded as lost, which gives scientists a rare opportunity to revisit the identity of one of the Gulf of Guinea’s most mysterious snakes. Adolfo Möller found the specimen during an expedition to the island, after which zoologist Jacques Vladimir von Bedriaga examined it. According to the study published in Bio One Digital Library titled ‘The materialization of a ghost: redescription of Bedriaga’s ‘lost’ specimen of Green Mamba (Elapidae: Dendroaspis) from São Tomé Island’, researchers eventually found the specimen in the collections of the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Its significance became even clearer because other historical specimens from São Tomé had disappeared, which leaves fewer clues to resolve the snake’s identity. The preserved mamba now allows scientists to examine its physical features and revisit more than a century of conflicting classifications.The ‘ghost’ green mamba was hiding in a Polish museum for decadesThe snake was found by Adolfo Frederico Möller between May and September 1885 during an expedition to São ...