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Welcome to the jungle: Newly discovered snake named after Slash from Guns N' Roses

Phys · · 874 words · By Field Museum
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What to know about Welcome to the jungle: Newly discovered snake named after Slash from Guns N' Roses

A new species of groundsnake from New Guinea, named Lielaphis slashi, has been identified through genetic and physical analysis. The species was named after musician Slash due to his lifelong interest in herpetology and support for museums.

Propaganda risk 10%
Claims checked 12
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Welcome to the jungle: Newly discovered snake named after Slash from Guns N' Roses Robert Egan Senior Editor Slash, aka Saul Hudson, is probably best known as the guitarist for Guns N' Roses.

Why it matters

He's also a lifelong reptile lover and an avid supporter of zoos and museums.

Common ground

And now, he's the namesake of the newly discovered Lielaphis slashi: Slash's groundsnake.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

A new species of groundsnake from New Guinea, named Lielaphis slashi, has been identified through genetic and physical analysis. The species was named after musician Slash due to his lifelong interest in herpetology and support for museums.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-08-jungle-newly-snake-slash-guns.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 100%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 12 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 6
verified Verified By Reference 3
schedule Pending 2
help Insufficient Evidence 1
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Claim 1: “Tianqi Huang et al, A new species of Papuan groundsnake (Squamata: Colubridae: Lielaphis) from New Guinea, Zootaxa (2026). DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5866.2.6”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 2: “New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world, after Greenland.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources confirm New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world.
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web search NEUTRAL — New Guinea is the second largest non-continental island in the world, situated to the north of Australia. It has a north-south border that divides the island into east and west divisions.
https://mapcarta.com/New_Guinea
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web search NEUTRAL — New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a population of 14.8 million people.
https://d1dagyb1ctngx1.cloudfront.net/travel/articles/197421…
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web search NEUTRAL — The world's second-largest island and most linguistically diverse place on Earth, split between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
https://lonelyisland.co/islands/new-guinea
help
Claim 3: “L. slashi does not produce any venom that could seriously harm a person.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided to confirm or deny the venom status of Lielaphis slashi.
verified
Claim 4: “It's located just north of Australia, and the landmass is divided between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and other sources confirm New Guinea is located north of Australia and is divided between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The prehistory of Papua New Guinea can be traced to about 50,000–60,000 years ago, when people first migrated towards the Australian continent. Agriculture was established at least 7000 years ago in t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Papua_New_Guinea
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Indonesia–Papua New Guinea border separates the Papua, Highland Papua, and South Papua provinces of Indonesia from the Sandaun and Western provinces of Papua New Guinea. The border, which divides …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia–Papua_New_Guinea_bor…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Indonesia–Papua New Guinea relations are foreign relations between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The relationship between the two countries has existed for a long time, even before Papua New Guinea'…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia–Papua_New_Guinea_rel…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 5: “Slash, aka Saul Hudson, is probably best known as the guitarist for Guns N' Roses.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (TikTok, Apple Music) confirm Saul Hudson is known as Slash and is the lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, is a British-American guitarist from Stoke-on-Trent, England. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achi…
https://www.tiktok.com/discover/saul-hudson-what-band-is-he-…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Saul Hudson, known professionally as Slash, is a British-American songwriter, producer, and performer best known as lead guitarist for the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses. ∙ While still with GN’R, he for…
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/slash/115556
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Explore Guns N' Roses's biography, discography, and artist credits.Explore the discography of Guns N' Roses. Shop for vinyl, CDs, and more from Guns N' Roses on Discogs.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/124535-Guns-N-Roses
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Claim 6: “a 28-inch-long (71-centimeter-long) reddish-brown snake from the forests of New Guinea.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources describe Lielaphis slashi as a reddish-brown snake from New Guinea measuring approximately 28 inches (71 cm).
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Stegonotus guentheri, also known commonly as the D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago ground snake and the Milne Bay ground snake, is a species of snake in the subfamily Colubrinae of the family Colubridae. T…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegonotus_guentheri
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In biological nomenclature, organisms often receive scientific names that honor a person. A taxon (e.g., species or genus; plural: taxa) named in honor of another entity is an eponymous taxon, and nam…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_…
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web search NEUTRAL — A newly discovered snake from New Guinea has been named after Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who has loved reptiles since childhood.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918024816.h…
+ 2 more evidence sources
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Claim 7: “he's the namesake of the newly discovered Lielaphis slashi: Slash's groundsnake.”
CORROBORATED
Three independent web sources confirm the discovery of a new snake species named Lielaphis slashi in honor of Slash.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Summary: A newly discovered snake from New Guinea has been named after Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who has loved reptiles since childhood. Genetic testing and physical differences confirmed that th…
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918024816.h…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Slash’s groundsnake, ‘Lielaphis slashi,’ in New Guinea. Image: Chris Austin.Based on the snake’s appearance alone, it was not clear that the team was looking at a new species. A laboratory analysis ma…
https://www.popsci.com/environment/snake-species-named-after…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — A new species of non-venomous snake has been discovered in the forests of New Guinea and named after Slash, the guitarist of the rock band Guns N' Roses.It turned out that Lielaphis slashi differs fro…
https://infohub.kz/en/article/new-snake-species-named-after-…
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Claim 8: “Using multiple cutting-edge genetic analyses, we found that L. slashi is genetically distinct from other similar snakes in the same genus”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources quote Tianqi Huang stating that genetic analyses found L. slashi to be genetically distinct from other snakes in the genus.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — "Using multiple cutting-edge genetic analyses, we found that L. slashi is genetically distinct from other similar snakes in the same genus,” says Tianqi Huang, the study’s first author and a post-doct…
https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/welcome-to-the-jungl…
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web search NEUTRAL — “Using multiple cutting-edge genetic analyses, we found that L. slashi is genetically distinct from other similar snakes in the same genus,” said first author Tianqi Huang. Scale counts and habitat mo…
https://www.martincid.com/science/snake-named-after-slash-li…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — “Using several advanced methods of genetic analysis, we found that Lielaphis slashi is genetically distinct from other similar snakes in the same genus,” said Dr. Tianchi Huang, a researcher at the Fi…
https://www.ynetnews.com/environment/article/h1ny6ycvgx
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Claim 9: “Sara Ruane, the Field Museum's associate curator of herpetology and senior author of a paper in Zootaxa describing the new species.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm Sara Ruane is the associate curator of herpetology at the Field Museum and the senior author of the Zootaxa paper.
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web search NEUTRAL — Slash and Sara Ruane, the paper's senior author, at the Field Museum, with Sara's copy of Reptiles Magazine featuring Slash on the cover.Journal information: Zootaxa. Key concepts. herpetology. Provid…
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-jungle-newly-snake-slash-guns.…
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web search NEUTRAL — Sara Ruane, the Field Museum's associate curator of herpetology and senior author of a paper in Zootaxa describing the new species, said her interest in reptiles began early.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/slash-guns-n-roses-gui…
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web search NEUTRAL — The initiative to name the reptile after the guitarist came from Sara Ruane, Associate Curator of Herpetology at the Field Museum and senior author of the Zootaxa paper. Ruane highlighted Slash’s long…
https://www.noise11.com/news/slash-honoured-with-new-snake-s…
verified
Claim 10: “One night in 2006, Chris Austin, a professor and curator of herpetology at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, was conducting fieldwork in New Guinea when he came across an unfamiliar snake.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of irrelevant search results about AI and LSU football, failing to corroborate the specific details about Chris Austin's 2006 discovery.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2021 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team represented the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Ragin' Cajuns played their home games at Cajun …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Louisiana_Ragin'_Cajuns_f…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The following is a list of notable alumni of Louisiana State University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Louisiana_State_Univer…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_University
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 11: “Tianqi Huang, the study's first author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum with Ruane.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided Wikipedia evidence for this claim is about the Ming dynasty and Xiamen, which is completely irrelevant to Tianqi Huang.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The literature of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) was characterized by a strong renewal of entertainment literature in vernacular Chinese, including theatre, tales, short stories, and novels. Meanwhile, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty_literature
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The history of China and its dynasties contain many important legal and territorial changes and political events. Dates prior to 841 BC, the beginning of the Gonghe Regency, are provisional and subjec…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Chinese_history
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Xiamen, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, To…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen
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Claim 12: “The habitats that Slash's groundsnake is from are under threat from industries like coffee farming and mining”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.