I really appreciate the contributions you make to this forum such as this...



The term "venomous" has some nasty connotations associated with it that certainly make MY ears perk up, especially when it comes to legislation that specifies venomous reptiles (i.e., prohibition, permitting, etc). Although Heterodon is not lumped into the category as "hot" (that I assume is a commonly accepted slang term for those reptiles that are truly life threatening), how do we go about separating those "cute little snakes" from ones that can truly put you down or rot a limb off? I am hoping that we can have better term to refer to them as so as to prevent any panic related lumping with the hots, especially by lawmakers.



While I have you on the line...

I have been doing a Heterdon literature research lately, and I have been collecting the toxicity related papers going back to Bragg's 1960 paper. From the book, Medical Herpetology (1994), the author cites W.G. Weaver (1965) who claims that vipers evolved from Heterodon and Xenodon. I find this fascinating (largely due to my lack of understanding of true evolutionary relationships, therefore I was suddenly enlightened), hogs are being described as protovipers. What is the modern thinking of this? Do you have an opinion? Should this have an effect on how we categorize them?
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."

Aldo Leopold (1938)



"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

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