In Turkey April 2010 I have seen this very unusual snake. It was at the ruins of Perge whilst I was site seeing. First of all I am quite an experienced Herpetologist and have studied snakes and reptiles for years, but I have never come across anything like this.
Let me try and describe it as accurately as possible. I did not see its head, but by the way that it moved I knew it was a snake. I saw the last 100 or 110cm of its body and tail as it was moving slowly through thick thorn bushes. It was quite a large snake as the body was about 10 or 11cm thick.
My plan was to grab the tail and chuck it out in the open where I could take a photo of it. I tried to step through the thorn bushes and tried not to put my feet near where I thought its head could be. As I was trying to get closer to it, it started to move more quickly into the thicker bushes and escaped. I got a really good look at it. Unfortunately I still didn’t see its head, but I saw enough to identify it as a snake and as a VERY unusual one.
Its colour was glossy black, similar to the Natal Black Snake of South Africa (Macrelaps microlepidotus) I will include a photo of the colour. (see Diagram 1 Natal black snake)
The really weird bit about this snake was its dorsal scales. It had no rows of individual smaller scales as any other snake does. It had ring scales. Every dorsal scale was one entire ring from the ventral on the one side of the body, across the back, to the ventral on the other side. (see Diagram 2) Kind of like a millipede’s body.
It made a distinctive sound as it moved. Similar to a rattle snake, but much quieter. This sound was obviously a result of its scales rubbing against each other as it moved. Next two diagrams are views from above:
It is now a year later and this sighting still baffles me as I cannot find anything online even close to what I saw that day. I have even tried to Google "snake legends", as this snake seemed to be out of a myth of some sort. It had very unusual scales. Please any comments, ideas and questions are welcomed. Thanks.
