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Bothrops Alcatraz
''Bothrops alcatraz'', also known as the Alcatrazes lancehead, is a pitviper species found only on the Alcatrazes Islands off the coast of southeastern Brazil. No subspecies are currently recognized. Like all pit vipers, it is venomous. Description Grows to a maximum size of 46.2/50.5 cm for males/females. Its small size and relatively large eyes are considered paedomorphic (juvenile) characteristics. Until 15,000 years ago, only common ''Bothrops'' lived by the island, which was at that time still connected to the continent due to the receded sea waters. When the sea rose back again (with the end of the last glacial period) and the mountain returned to its archipelago status, the ''Bothrops'' that became isolated there quickly fed on all available rodents, which are its main food. They ended up resorting to cockroaches and ''scolopendra'' and, due to their much smaller nutritional value, the snakes slowly shrunk their size until they couldn't grow beyond 50 cm – a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcatrazes Islands
Alcatrazes is a Brazilian archipelago, located some 35 km south of São Sebastião, in the northern coast of the State of São Paulo, one hour away by boat, approximately. It is protected by the largest marine integral conservation unit of Brazil after the Abrolhos Marine National Park. Etymology The name of the archipelago comes from a bird which forms its second largest bird population, with some three thousand specimens: the brown bobby, which is also known as "alcatraz", a word that in Arabic means "the diver", due to its ability to dive into the sea to capture fishes or squids. Geography Geology The islands are believed to present their very current format since at least 2.5 million years ago. However, during the last glacial period (in between 85 thousand and 15 thousand years ago), the sea water was receded in such a way that the archipelago was actually a mountain still connected to the continent. Alcatrazes is formed by five main islands. The biggest one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
