Humpback snakes

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Humpback snakes
Achalinus formosanus

Achalinus formosanus

Systematics
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
without rank: Toxicofera
Subordination : Snakes (serpentes)
Superfamily : Adder-like and viper-like (Colubroidea)
Family : Humpback snakes
Scientific name
Xenodermidae
Gray , 1849

The hump snakes (Xenodermidae) are a family of snakes found in South and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Taiwan.

features

Mute snakes are small, generally less than half a meter in length. Their scaling is heterogeneous. Between tiny, elongated hump scales there are sometimes rows of larger keeled tubercles. The rear edges of their lip scales ( scutum supralabiale and scutum sublabiale ) are rolled up, their tail scales are simple. The dorsal vertebrae have specially shaped, table-shaped spinous processes . Mute snakes feed primarily on invertebrates such as earthworms and nudibranchs.

Systematics

Achalinus spilanus

The humpback snakes originally belonged as a subfamily to the large, originally paraphyletic family of the snakes (Colubridae), but are now considered to be independent. They are the most basic family in the superfamily of the adder-like and viper-like (Colubroidea). Her sister group is a large clade of six families, including the snakes, the poison snakes (Elapidae) and the vipers (Viperidae). The systematics of snakes is still the subject of current investigations, so some authors also classify the wart snakes in the superfamily of the adder-like and viper-like, which makes them the most basic group. According to Pyron et al. , which place the wart snakes as a separate superfamily next to the Colubroidea, the following system arises within the Colubroidae:

 Adder-like and viper-like  



 Vipers (Viperidae)


   

 Adders (Colubridae)


   


 Poison Snakes (Elapidae)


   

 Lamprophiidae



   

 Water snakes (Homalopsidae)





   

 Pareidae



   

 Mute snakes (Xenodermidae)



Genera and species

Stoliczkia borneensis
Xenodermus javanicus

A total of 15 species belong to the humpback snakes:

The genus Xylophis , which previously belonged to the Xenodermidae, now forms the subfamily Xylophiinae within the family Pareidae .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. a b N. Vidal, AS Delmas, P. David, C. Cruaud, A. Couloux, SB Hedges: The phylogeny and classification of caenophidian snakes inferred from seven nuclear protein-coding genes. In: Comptes Rendus Biologies. 330 (2007), pp. 182-187 online: PDF ( Memento from June 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. R. Alexander Pyron, Frank T. Burbrink, Guarino R. Colli, Adrian Nieto Montes de Oca, Laurie J. Vitt, Caitlin A. Kuczynski, John J. Wiens: The phylogeny of advanced snakes (Colubroidea), with discovery of a new subfamily and comparison of support methods for likelihood trees . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 2010, p. 329–342 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2010.11.006 .
  3. Xenodermidae in The Reptile Database
  4. ^ A b V. Deepak, Sara Ruane and David J. Gower. 2019. A New Subfamily of Fossorial Colubroid Snakes from the Western Ghats of Peninsular India. Journal of Natural History. 52 (45-46) DOI: 10.1080 / 00222933.2018.1557756
  5. Teynié, Alexandre, Patrick David, Anne Lottier, Minh D. Le, Nicolas Vidal & Truong Q. Nguyen. 2015. A New Genus and Species of xenodermatid Snake (Squamata: Caenophidia: Xenodermatidae) from northern Lao People's Democratic Republic. Zootaxa . 3926 (4): 523-540. DOI: 10.11646 / zootaxa.3926.4.4

Web links

Commons : Xenodermatidae  - collection of images, videos and audio files