New snake family for mock vipers - Psammodynastidae

Professor Juha Merilä and collaborators at the University of Helsinki have solved the mystery of the mock viper's taxonomy. After analysing the genome of over 4,500 mock vipers, the scientists unraveled their evolutionary history, placing mock vipers into a completely new snake family - Psammodynastidae. Such discoveries of new vertebrate families are extremely rare.