Scientists Discover New Snake Species And Name it Salazar After 'Harry Potter' Lore

The scientific world has gotten a new first as scientists have found a new snake species.

The team of scientific researchers from India has settled on the name Salazar Slytherin for the newly discovered green pit viper snake.

The researchers released their findings in the journal publication of Zoosystematics and Evolution this month.

According to the "Harry Potter" lore, Salazar Slytherin, and his wizard friends, were the original creators of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.

Salazar's friends included Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw.

Salazar and his three friends were considered the most powerful during their time, and the names of the four wizards and witches are the ones used to name the four Hogwarts houses.

One of the abilities that wizard Slytherin was capable of was talking to snakes. Even the house of Slytherin, in Hogwarts, uses the snake symbol as their logo.

It would seem the researchers were influenced by these reasons to name the discovered snake breed Trimeresurus Salazar as a homage to the fictional world of "Harry Porter."

The researchers suggested the common name for the snake should be Salazar's pit viper.

To date, there exist forty-eight types of species of the snake genus Trimeresurus and it is indigenous to the east and southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands, the India subcontinent and China.

Generally, the Trimeresurus species of snakes are known to be small, thin-bodied with prehensile tails. However, one of the longest pit viper snake named Trimeresurus Flavoviridis at 7 feet 9 inches in length is found in east Asia as well.

The standard color of a lot of the Trimeresurus genus is green, and some of the species have black, yellow or gold marks on them.

The new species Salazar Slytherin pit viper snake is distinguishable by the orange-reddish stripe that the males have on the side of the head.

The Salazar species feeds on small mammals, birds, rodents, lizards and amphibians.

The genus of Trimeresurus is split into those which are oviparous and ovoviviparous. That means they can reproduce by laying eggs and still give birth, respectively.

The venomous toxicity of the Trimeresurus species will depend on the type of pit viper species, but they are commonly known to have hemotoxic venom.

That means the venom causes problems of blood clotting upon envenomation. The level of its toxicity is yet to be established.