Ana Carolina A. Sousa, Dominika Mierzwa-Szymkowiak, Diogo Parrinha, Aaron M. Bauer, Mariana P. Marques, Paulo Passos, Luis M. P. Ceríaco
The Sao Tomé Green Mamba has long been considered one of the great enigmas of Gulf of Guinea herpetology, as the only specimens ever collected were destroyed or are missing. Here we report the rediscovery of one of these specimens, collected in 1885 by Adolfo Möller and long thought lost, housed in the Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. A detailed re-examination of this specimen provides the first opportunity in over a century to reassess its morphology and clarifies historical ambiguities in Bedriaga's description, particularly morphology overlaps with continental Dendroaspis viridis. A detailed history of the specimen is also presented, as well as future research directions.