Fire destroys more than 500 000 samples of Butantan Institute.
The biggest collection of snakes in the world on tropics, as well as spiders and scorpions were lost.

May 15, 11:30 AM

SÃO PAULO - A fire occurred this saturday morning, 15, at the reptile laboratory of Instituto Butantan, in the west zone of São Paulo, destroying thousands of specimens of snakes and arachnids, including animals species not yet described by scientists. No animal were alive before the fire.