Descripción
Registros
Los datos en este recurso de registros biológicos han sido publicados como Archivo Darwin Core(DwC-A), el cual es un formato estándar para compartir datos de biodiversidad como un conjunto de una o más tablas de datos. La tabla de datos del core contiene 153 registros.
Este IPT archiva los datos y, por lo tanto, sirve como repositorio de datos. Los datos y los metadatos del recurso están disponibles para su descarga en la sección descargas. La tabla versiones enumera otras versiones del recurso que se han puesto a disposición del público y permite seguir los cambios realizados en el recurso a lo largo del tiempo.
Versiones
La siguiente tabla muestra sólo las versiones publicadas del recurso que son de acceso público.
¿Cómo referenciar?
Los usuarios deben citar este trabajo de la siguiente manera:
Bouam, I., Chedad, A., Sadine, S. E., 2024. Swimming in the Sahara: a new locality record and range extension of Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata, Colubridae) from central Algeria. Museu de Ciències Naturals. Occurrence/dataset: https://doi.org/10.15470/fe3689
Derechos
Los usuarios deben respetar los siguientes derechos de uso:
El publicador y propietario de los derechos de este trabajo es Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. Esta obra está bajo una licencia Creative Commons de Atribución/Reconocimiento (CC-BY 4.0).
Registro GBIF
Este recurso ha sido registrado en GBIF con el siguiente UUID: 6de0687a-c1e9-47e6-97ae-a1d15fe71c4f. Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona publica este recurso y está registrado en GBIF como un publicador de datos avalado por GBIF Spain.
Palabras clave
Occurrences; Herpetofauna; Viperine snake; Bilineata; North Africa; Wallacean shortfall; Observation
Contactos
- Proveedor De Los Metadatos ●
- Originador ●
- Punto De Contacto
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4394-9297
- Proveedor De Los Metadatos ●
- Originador ●
- Punto De Contacto
- Proveedor De Los Metadatos ●
- Originador ●
- Punto De Contacto
- Usuario
Cobertura geográfica
Field observations were conducted at Sebkhet El Melah wetland (30° 28' 06" N, 2° 55' 35" E; 370 m a.s.l.; fig. 1A), El Menia Province (formerly El Goléa), central Algeria. This shallow, saline lake covers about 8 km² and is bordered by sand dunes and rocky hills. It receives water from surrounding palm grove drainage, El Menia city domestic wastewater, and rainfall (Hacěne et al., 2004; Alioua et al., 2016). Designated as a Ramsar Site (https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1429), Sebkhet El Melah is a critical habitat for Saharan biodiversity, particularly waterbirds (Bouzid et al., 2009, 2019, 2023; Chedad et al., 2021). Based on data from the WorldClim database with a resolution of ~1 km² (Fick and Hijmans, 2017), the site falls within the inferior Saharan bioclimatic zone, characterized by temperate winters and a mean annual precipitation of 30 mm.
| Coordenadas límite | Latitud Mínima Longitud Mínima [30,12, 0,07], Latitud Máxima Longitud Máxima [36,93, 8,49] |
|---|
Cobertura taxonómica
No hay descripción disponible
| Filo | Chordata |
|---|---|
| Class | Reptilia |
| Orden | Squamata |
| Familia | Colubridae |
| Género | Natrix |
| Especie | Natrix maura |
Datos del proyecto
Algeria ranks among the most species-rich countries in the Mediterranean Basin and North Africa in terms of terrestrial reptiles, with 101 documented species (Rouag et al., 2024). However, knowledge of the distribution of many reptile taxa remains incomplete due to a scarcity of comprehensive herpetofaunal inventories across many parts of the country (Beddek, 2017; Beddek et al., 2018). Much of the available distributional data relies on historical sources, primarily museum specimens and 19th and early 20th-century literature (e.g., Gervais, 1836; Guichenot, 1850; Strauch, 1862; Lallemant, 1867; Boulenger, 1891; Olivier, 1894; Doumergue, 1901), which often suffer from spatial inaccuracies. This knowledge gap, referred to as the “Wallacean shortfall”, is particularly pronounced in the Algerian Sahara, due in part to the inaccessibility of remote regions, resulting in many reptilian taxa having poorly defined and documented range maps (Bouam et al., 2022; Chedad et al., 2024). Although the past decade has witne sed a resurgence of scientific interest in Algeria’s reptile fauna, resulting in the discovery of previously unreported taxa and significant range extensions for known species across diverse taxonomic groups, including Testudinidae (Boulaouad et al., 2023), Gekkonidae (Mouane et al., 2021), Scincidae (Rouag et al., 2016), Agamidae (Saoudi et al., 2017; El Bouhissi et al., 2022), Lamprophiidae (Bakhouche and Escoriza, 2017; Bakhouche et al., 2019; Böhme et al., 2019), and Viperidae (Bouam et al., 2019). Natrix Laurenti, 1768 is a Palearctic genus of colubrid snakes, currently comprising five recognized species (Uetz et al., 2023). Among these, the semiaquatic Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758) exhibits a West Mediterranean chorotype. It is widespread across the Maghreb and Western Europe, extending from the Iberian Peninsula to northwestern Italy, including France and southwestern Switzerland (Mateo Miras et al., 2009). N. maura occurs at elevations ranging from sea level up to 2600 m asl and is commonly encountered in various freshwater habitats, but also tolerates waters with relatively high salt concentrations (Fuentes and Escoriza, 2015; Geniez, 2015). It predominantly preys on fish and amphibians (Rugiero et al., 2000; Santos et al., 2000). This species is a small to medium-sized snake, typically measuring 40–80 cm in total length, though some individuals reach up to 95 cm (Geniez, 2015; Trape, 2023). Notably, this colubrid species exhibits remarkable Batesian mimicry, both morphologically and behaviourally, of European vipers of the genus Vipera (Santos et al., 2018), hence its common name, the viperine snake.
| Título | Swimming in the Sahara: A new locality record and range extension of Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata, Colubridae), from central Algeria |
|---|---|
| Descripción del área de estudio | Field observations were conducted at Sebkhet El Melah wetland (30° 28' 06" N, 2° 55' 35" E; 370 m a.s.l.; fig. 1A), El Menia Province (formerly El Goléa), central Algeria. This shallow, saline lake covers about 8 km² and is bordered by sand dunes and rocky hills. It receives water from surrounding palm grove drainage, El Menia city domestic wastewater, and rainfall (Hacěne et al., 2004; Alioua et al., 2016). Designated as a Ramsar Site (https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1429), Sebkhet El Melah is a critical habitat for Saharan biodiversity, particularly waterbirds (Bouzid et al., 2009, 2019, 2023; Chedad et al., 2021). Based on data from the WorldClim database with a resolution of ~1 km² (Fick and Hijmans, 2017), the site falls within the inferior Saharan bioclimatic zone, characterized by temperate winters and a mean annual precipitation of 30 mm. |
| Descripción del diseño | To comprehensively update N. maura distribution in Algeria, we conducted a thorough literature review and searched online museum and institutional collections for occurrence records. Additionally, occurrence data were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, 2024) and iNaturalist (https://inaturalist.org). Following Chowdhury et al. (2024), data were also sourced from Facebook (https://facebook.com), specifically from the group named “world of wildlife in Algeria - عالم الحياة البرية في الجزائر” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1641684429224291/). The species identification of data obtained from both iNaturalist and Facebook was double-checked and confirmed by the authors. To ensure data accuracy, all records included precise locality description and/or GPS coordinates with a minimum precision of two decimal degrees, while excluding records with coordinates referring to the centroids of large geographic areas. Duplicate records from the same locality were merged into single entries. The final dataset comprised 139 unique presence locations (annex 1) visualized using ArcGIS v. 10.8. |
Personas asociadas al proyecto:
Métodos de muestreo
To comprehensively update N. maura distribution in Algeria, we conducted a thorough literature review and searched online museum and institutional collections for occurrence records.
| Área de Estudio | Field observations were conducted at Sebkhet El Melah wetland (30° 28' 06" N, 2° 55' 35" E; 370 m a.s.l.; fig. 1A), El Menia Province (formerly El Goléa), central Algeria. This shallow, saline lake covers about 8 km² and is bordered by sand dunes and rocky hills. It receives water from surrounding palm grove drainage, El Menia city domestic wastewater, and rainfall (Hacěne et al., 2004; Alioua et al., 2016). Designated as a Ramsar Site (https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1429), Sebkhet El Melah is a critical habitat for Saharan biodiversity, particularly waterbirds (Bouzid et al., 2009, 2019, 2023; Chedad et al., 2021). Based on data from the WorldClim database with a resolution of ~1 km² (Fick and Hijmans, 2017), the site falls within the inferior Saharan bioclimatic zone, characterized by temperate winters and a mean annual precipitation of 30 mm. |
|---|---|
| Control de Calidad | Additionally, occurrence data were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, 2024) and iNaturalist (https://inaturalist.org). Following Chowdhury et al. (2024), data were also sourced from Facebook (https://facebook.com), specifically from the group named “world of wildlife in Algeria (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1641684429224291/). |
Descripción de la metodología paso a paso:
- The species identification of data obtained from both iNaturalist and Facebook was double-checked and confirmed by the authors. To ensure data accuracy, all records included precise locality description and/or GPS coordinates with a minimum precision of two decimal degrees, while excluding records with coordinates referring to the centroids of large geographic areas. Duplicate records from the same locality were merged into single entries. The final dataset comprised 139 unique presence locations (annex 1) visualized using ArcGIS v. 10.8.
Referencias bibliográficas
- Bouam, I., Chedad, A., Sadine, S. E., 2024. Swimming in the Sahara: a new locality record and range extension of Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata, Colubridae) from central Algeria. Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, 22: 129-142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2024.22.0129. https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2024.22.0129
Metadatos adicionales
| Introducción | Algeria ranks among the most species-rich countries in the Mediterranean Basin and North Africa in terms of terrestrial reptiles, with 101 documented species (Rouag et al., 2024). However, knowledge of the distribution of many reptile taxa remains incomplete due to a scarcity of comprehensive herpetofaunal inventories across many parts of the country (Beddek, 2017; Beddek et al., 2018). Much of the available distributional data relies on historical sources, primarily museum specimens and 19th and early 20th-century literature (e.g., Gervais, 1836; Guichenot, 1850; Strauch, 1862; Lallemant, 1867; Boulenger, 1891; Olivier, 1894; Doumergue, 1901), which often suffer from spatial inaccuracies. This knowledge gap, referred to as the “Wallacean shortfall”, is particularly pronounced in the Algerian Sahara, due in part to the inaccessibility of remote regions, resulting in many reptilian taxa having poorly defined and documented range maps (Bouam et al., 2022; Chedad et al., 2024). Although the past decade has witnessed a resurgence of scientific interest in Algeria’s reptile fauna, resulting in the discovery of previously unreported taxa and significant range extensions for known species across diverse taxonomic groups, including Testudinidae (Boulaouad et al., 2023), Gekkonidae (Mouane et al., 2021), Scincidae (Rouag et al., 2016), Agamidae (Saoudi et al., 2017; El Bouhissi et al., 2022), Lamprophiidae (Bakhouche and Escoriza, 2017; Bakhouche et al., 2019; Böhme et al., 2019), and Viperidae (Bouam et al., 2019). Natrix Laurenti, 1768 is a Palearctic genus of colubrid snakes, currently comprising five recognized species (Uetz et al., 2023). Among these, the semiaquatic Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758) exhibits a West Mediterranean chorotype. It is widespread across the Maghreb and Western Europe, extending from the Iberian Peninsula to northwestern Italy, including France and southwestern Switzerland (Mateo Miras et al., 2009). N. maura occurs at elevations ranging from sea level up to 2600 m asl and is commonly encountered in various freshwater habitats, but also tolerates waters with relatively high salt concentrations (Fuentes and Escoriza, 2015; Geniez, 2015). It predominantly preys on fish and amphibians (Rugiero et al., 2000; Santos et al., 2000). This species is a small to medium-sized snake, typically measuring 40–80 cm in total length, though some individuals reach up to 95 cm (Geniez, 2015; Trape, 2023). Notably, this colubrid species exhibits remarkable Batesian mimicry, both morphologically and behaviourally, of European vipers of the genus Vipera (Santos et al., 2018), hence its common name, the viperine snake. |
|---|---|
| Propósito | We present a new locality record for N. maura in Algeria, significantly expanding its known geographic distribution. Additionally, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of N. maura distribution within the country, we compiled occurrence data from various sources and provide an updated distribution map for Algeria. |
| Identificadores alternativos | 6de0687a-c1e9-47e6-97ae-a1d15fe71c4f |
| https://ipt.gbif.es/resource?r=viperine_snake_algeria |