MythscribeMundus
THE NATURAL & IMAGINED WORLDAn illustrated compendium
mythscribe.cloudSearch/
NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

Vipera altaica Tuniyev, Nilson & Andrén, 2010

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Vipera altaica. Kazachstan Village Tschernjaevka, at river Kalgyr. Collections of the Natural History Museum, Göteborg, Sweden.

Vipera altaica. Kazachstan Village Tschernjaevka, at river Kalgyr. Collections of the Natural History Museum, Göteborg, Sweden.

Anders Larsson · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image source

Provider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.

Open encyclopedia reference

Vipera altaica, the Altai viper, is a hybridized species of viper, a mix between Vipera berus and Vipera renardi. It has been sighted very few times and only on the borders between Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, all near or on the Altai Mountains. Sighted Altai vipers have been small or medium sized. Its name is derived from the mountain range it has been found in.

Wikipedia contributors, Vipera altaica; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T14:57:40.945394+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Vipera altaica Tuniyev, Nilson & Andrén, 2010
Name authority
Tuniyev, Nilson & Andrén, 2010
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Reptilia
Order
Squamata
Family
Viperidae
Genus
Vipera
Extinction status
Not supplied by this source

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
  9. orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
  10. suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
  11. infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
  12. familyViperidae
  13. subfamilyViperinae
  14. genusVipera
  15. speciesVipera altaica Tuniyev, Nilson & Andrén, 2010

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Vipera. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Nose-horned ViperVipera ammodytes (Linnaeus, 1758)ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Anatolian Meadow ViperVipera anatolica Eiselt & Baran, 1970ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Asp ViperVipera aspis (Linnaeus, 1758)ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Caucasus ViperVipera kaznakovi Nikolsky, 1909ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Lataste’s ViperVipera latastei Bosca, 1878ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Mountain ViperVipera monticola Saint Girons, 1953ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Darevsky's ViperVipera darevskii Vedmederja, Orlov & Tuniyev, 1986ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Vipera orlovi Tuniyev & Ostrovskikh, 2001ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Greek Meadow ViperVipera graeca Nilson & Andrén, 1988ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Sako’s ViperVipera sakoi (Tuniyev, Avci, Ilgaz, Olgun, Petrova, Bodrov, Geniez & Teynié, 2018)ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Eastern sand viperVipera meridionalis Boulenger, 1903ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
AdderVipera berus (Linnaeus, 1758)ViperidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 244 records assigned to Viperidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

E Kazakhstan (Altay and Saur Mountains)

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Vipera&species=altaica Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5BJ7M. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.