A slender reptile slips beneath damp leaf litter in Taiwan’s mountain forests, rarely seen and often mistaken for a snake. For more than a century, scientists have argued over what, exactly, it is.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published at The Conversation. You have likely been to a zoo at some point and visited their reptile house. A building where the climate control dial is ...

A slender reptile slips beneath damp leaf litter in Taiwan’s mountain forests, rarely seen and often mistaken for a snake. For more than a century, scientists have argued over what, exactly, it is.