Real double sneak

Real double sneak
Red double worm ( Amphisbaena alba )
Systematics
without rank: Sauropsida Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria) Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata) without rank: Lacertoidea without rank: Double creeping (Amphisbaenia) Family : Real double sneak
Scientific name
Amphisbaenidae
Gray , 1865

The real double snakes (Amphisbaenidae) are a family of the squamata (squamata). There are legless lizards that in Africa the southern Sahara and in Central and South America occur.

features

Actual double sneaks are ten to 70 centimeters long. Your shoulder and pelvic girdles are reduced or have completely disappeared. They are highly adapted to a burrowing way of life, have a heavily ossified skull and a short tail. In contrast to snakes and other legless lizards, whose left lung is smaller, it is the right one for the real double snakes and all other double snakes .

The heads and snouts of the real double sneaks are adapted to the way they dig. The blunt-headed genera Amphisbaena and Zygaspis only push their heads forward. Leposternon and Monopeltis species have a spade-shaped snout and shovel the earth from bottom to top. Anops and Ancylocranium species have a wedge-shaped, laterally flattened head that they swivel from left to right when digging.

Reproduction

Most of the real double snakes are oviparous (lay eggs), some species from the genera Loveridgea and Monopeltis are viviparous.

Genera and selected species

There are about 175 species in 12 genera.

• Amphisbaena Linnaeus, 1758 including Anops , Aulura , Bronia & Cercolophia
  • Red double worm ( Amphisbaena alba )
  • Amphisbaena caiari
  • Spotted double worm ( Amphisbaena fuliginosa )
• Ancylocranium Scortecci, 1930
• Baikia Gray, 1865
• Chirindia Boulenger, 1907
• Cynisca Duméril & Bibron, 1839
• Dalophia Gray, 1865
• Geocalamus Günther, 1880
• Leposternon Wagler, 1824
• Loveridgea Tornier, 1899
• Mesobaena Mertens, 1925
• Monopeltis Smith, 1848
• Zygaspis Peters, 1854

The genera Blanus and Cadea , which were previously part of the Amphisbaenidae, are now placed in their own families.

literature

• Wolfgang Böhme : Squamata . in Wilfried Westheide & Reinhard Rieger : Special Zoology Part 2: Vertebrae and Skull Animals , page 375th edition, Spectrum Academic Publishing House Heidelberg • Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-8274-0307-3
• Eric R. Pianka, Laurie J. Vitt: Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (Organisms and Environments) . Pages 189-192, University of California Press (2003), ISBN 0520234014

1. ↑ Nicolas Vidal, Anna Azvolinsky, Corinne Cruaud & S. Blair Hedges (2007): Origin of tropical American burrowing reptiles by transatlantic rafting. Biol. Lett., Doi : 10.1098 / rsbl.2007.0531

Web links

Commons : Amphisbaenidae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Amphisbaenidae in The Reptile Database