This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Great Britain has long been thought to be home to a single venomous snake species, the adder. Although its bites are rarely life-threatening, they require a trip to the emergency department and will more than likely ruin your week.
The other two native British snakes, the grass snake and the smooth snake, have largely been considered nonvenomous. This status quo has been shaken by a new paper by herpetologists Alessandro Paterna and Grégoire Meier suggesting that the smooth snake should be reclassified as venomous. The teeth at the back of its maxilla (the outer upper jaw) are somewhat grooved.
They are surrounded by a sheath of gum tissue typical of so-called rear-fanged snakes, which can inject small quantities of venom into their prey. The study is published in the journal Zootaxa. Inevitably, this discovery generated lively headlines and plenty of questions.
How could the venomous nature of a native British snake have been overlooked for so long? Have we suddenly discovered a previously unrecognized menace lurking in the English countryside? To start, the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) is by far the rarest British snake.
It is restricted to lowland heaths in southern England, where it is listed as endangered under International Union for Conservation of Nature criteria. As Britain's smallest snake, it lives a discreet life. It feeds on lizards and occasionally other snakes or small mammals, and is rarely seen in the open.
Because of its rarity and status as a European Protected Species, it benefits from extensive conservation measures to preserve its habitat and from reintroductions to sites it formerly occupied. For biologists, these new findings aren't a plot twist so much as a loose end being tied up. Most of the 4,000 or so snake species alive today belong to a group known as the "advanced" snakes (Caenophidia).
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