The towering mountain ranges of Asia remain some of the least explored places on Earth when it comes to wildlife. Now, an international team of scientists has discovered that one of the region's most mysterious venomous snakes is not a single species after all. Instead, the Himalayan pit viper group consists of five separate species, including three previously unknown to science.

The findings were published in the open access journal ZooKeys . Researchers combined modern genetic analysis with skeletal studies, physical characteristics, and ecological observations to reexamine the snakes. Their work revealed that the Himalayan pit viper, first described in 1864 and long believed to be a widespread single species, actually represents several deeply distinct evolutionary lineages.

The team identified five species-level lineages in total.…