# Adders for Africa!!!



## Morelia_Hunter (Sep 20, 2006)

Its been years since i kept these little guys. These were some of my first venomous snakes. And all local to my Beautiful country South Africa. We have about 15 species of indigeonous adders and these are some of my favourites. They are full of attitude and are not man killers but you could lose a limb. They also dig themselves into sand so just the eyes stick out. Dont keep these together cause they are cannibalistic. Great snakes though!!!
First up is the Horned adder or Bitis caudalis:









And many Horned Adder or Bitis cornuta:








Hope you like!!!!!!


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## lizardboy_ryan (Sep 20, 2006)

cool snakes they kinda look like death adders


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## Hickson (Sep 21, 2006)

lizardboy_ryan said:


> cool snakes they kinda look like death adders



Convergent evolution.

Australian Death Adders were probably named 'adder' because of the physical similarity.



Hix


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## andrew_555 (Sep 22, 2006)

hey hix, 

is it convergent or parallel evolution? Because they are of the same origin and family?
Mind you i never really got the hang of the difference.

Bit of a tangent, sorry.


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## chad (Sep 22, 2006)

paralell would dentote that they have not met. so basicaly that would mean, they havent met, but have both evolved the same.

convergent means obviously that the lines converge. that they did meet. i think what hix was saying is that the lineage split when the contients were together, so they were originaly one species, or group, and then were seperated for a long time and thus evolved abit different.


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## chad (Sep 22, 2006)

whats the name in afrcian for the snake in window #2?

my neighbour is from southafrica and he told me alot about all the snakes he used to catch, and then take to the zoo to sell for a few bucks. i think he told me about that snake, one of the muscliest snakes or something. and they can punch their teeth thru the bottom of their mouth to bite you or something. beatiful markings, not a fan of that body shape tho, looks kinda like a poop to me :/, sorry for the imaturaty after the 1st smart post  should balance it out i reckon


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

Once again beuatiful snakes MH.


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## scotchbo (Sep 22, 2006)

Im a big fan of adder's they have such a cool head on them id love to own some one day


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## scotchbo (Sep 22, 2006)

That first many horned adder has such a cool look on his face lol he look's pure evil in a cute sort of way lol


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## NCHERPS (Sep 22, 2006)

chad said:


> paralell would dentote that they have not met. so basicaly that would mean, they havent met, but have both evolved the same.
> 
> convergent means obviously that the lines converge. that they did meet. i think what hix was saying is that the lineage split when the contients were together, so they were originaly one species, or group, and then were seperated for a long time and thus evolved abit different.



What I am sure Hix mean't is that the Adders ie. Bitis and Viperia had already been discovered, and once the scientists came across the 'Death adders' they saw similarities to the Bitis etc, so called them adders, however 'Death adders' are fixed front fanged Elapids, unlike the Vipers.

Cheers Neil


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## cheazy (Sep 22, 2006)

hey mate, r u still livin in rsa atm? and where about? i remember when i was about 7-8 my friend was playing with a tyre in the drakensberg and an adder (supposedly a ground adder? which my dad believes thers no such thing?? - any idea wat couldv bn?) popped out and bit him, luckily his dad was a docter and he managed to walk away fine after a few days, (the year before that he got bitten by a vervit monkey on a golf course)

cool pics as well, mike


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

They could also have been named after European 'true' Adders ?


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## Morelia_Hunter (Sep 22, 2006)

Just shows you how little some people know that visit this forum. Im not even going into trying to explain what convergent evolution is. I am shocked!!!!!!


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

My understanding of it is that 2 or more species can evolve to have similar appearance and habits but not be related. A good example would be the Green Tree Python and the Green Tree Boa.


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## waruikazi (Sep 22, 2006)

Scary lookin snakes! Beautiful at the same time though.


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## Veredus (Sep 22, 2006)

Convergent evolution is when two species evolve to have similar traits through adaptations to similar conditions, even though the two species may not be closely related nor even exist on the same continent.


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

I think that is what I said


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## bredli84 (Sep 22, 2006)

Veredus said:


> Convergent evolution is when two species evolve to have similar traits through adaptations to similar conditions, even though the two species may not be closely related nor even exist on the same continent.



this is correct, think of green tree pythons, and green tree boas. not closely related but are fairly similar in appearance due to the fact that they live in similar environmental niches where there is an advantage to look a certain way.
another good example are condors and vultures. both have developed extremely similar traits as scavenging birds, but are not even closely related. and both from diff continents.
they start out as quite diff things eg. one is related to eagles and the other to storks (or something). but due to development of similar traits eg Bald heads, hooked beaks etc are said to converge. THIS DOES NO MEAN THEY CAN INTER BREED. they are completely diff species and have only converged in appearance, not genetically.
hope this helps


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## Veredus (Sep 22, 2006)

boa said:


> I think that is what I said



So you did, sorry about that, I missed your post somehow..:shock:


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## RevDaniel (Sep 22, 2006)

nice looking snakes


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## bredli84 (Sep 22, 2006)

sorry boa. i just read ur post.  .


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

It's OK, I was begininning to wonder if I was the only one who could see it. LOL.


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## Australis (Sep 22, 2006)

Morelia_Hunter said:


> Just shows you how little some people know that visit this forum. Im not even going into trying to explain what convergent evolution is. I am shocked!!!!!!



Evolution... pffft

Noah delivered all the worlds animals in his tiny


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

Can you imagine the set up he would have had just for the reptiles ?


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## grimbeny (Sep 22, 2006)

yea convergent evolution is when two unrelated species evolve to look similar as they live in similar environment eg the mole and the marsupial mole.


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## Australis (Sep 22, 2006)

Yeah i wonder how he kept them?

Also, to all the people doing bible studies currently i would love some location info on Noahs drop off points, i want to take the term "locality pure" to a whole new level!!!
Also any info on Aussie Megafuana would be great 

P.S
Nice photos Morelia Hunter, do you have any shots of wild African Pythons Like Rocks Pythons or dwarf pythons?


Matt


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## Retic (Sep 22, 2006)

"yea convergent evolution is when two unrelated species evolve to look similar as they live in similar environment eg the mole and the marsupial mole."

Yeah I think we might have got that ;-)


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