List of Serpentes families

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Snakes

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes Linnaeus, 1758

This is a list of the extant Serpentes families. Serpentes is the suborder of reptiles commonly known as snakes.

[edit] Taxonomy

There are two infraorders of living snakes: Alethinophidia (with the superfamilies: Henophidia and Xenophidia) and Scolecophidia (with the superfamily Typhlopoidea). This separation is based on primarily on morphological characteristics between family groups, but more recently, mitochondrial DNA.

Henophidia are often referred to as the "primitive" snakes, they show evidence of vestigial limbs and a pelvic girdle. Xenophidia are the most numerous and diverse group.

As with most taxonomic classifications, there are many different interpretations of the evolutionary relationships. These include moving of families to different infraorders, merging or splitting of the infraorders and merging and splitting of the families. For instance, many sources classify Boidae and Pythonidae as the same family, as with Elapidae and Hydrophiidae, due to their extremely close relation.

Family	Common Names	Example Species	Example Photo
Henophidia 10 families
Aniliidae Stejneger, 1907	coral pipe snakes	Burrowing False Coral (Anilius scytale)
Anomochilidae Cundall, Wallach and Rossman, 1993	dwarf pipe snakes	Leonard's Pipe Snake, (Anomochilus leonardi)
Boidae Gray, 1825	boas	Amazon tree boa (Corallus hortulanus)
Bolyeridae Hoffstetter, 1946	round island boas	Round Island Burrowing Boa (Bolyeria multocarinata)
Cylindrophiidae Fitzinger, 1843	Asian pipe snakes	Red-tailed Pipe Snake (Cylindrophis ruffus)
Loxocemidae Cope, 1861	Mexican burrowing snakes	Mexican burrowing snake (Loxocemus bicolor)
Pythonidae Fitzinger, 1826	pythons	Ball python (Python regius)
Tropidophiidae Brongersma, 1951	dwarf boas	Northern Eyelash Boa (Trachyboa boulengeri)
Uropeltidae Müller, 1832	shield-tailed snakes, short-tailed snakes	Ocellated Shield-tail (Uropeltis ocellatus)
Xenopeltidae Bonaparte, 1845	sunbeam snakes	Sunbeam snake (Xenopeltis unicolor)
Typhlopoidea 3 families
Family	Common Names	Example Species	Example Photo
Anomalepidae Taylor, 1939	dawn blind snakes	Dawn Blind Snake (Liotyphlops beui)
Leptotyphlopidae Stejneger, 1892	slender blind snakes	Texas Blind Snake (Leptotyphlops dulcis)
Typhlopidae Merrem, 1820	blind snakes	Black Blind Snake (Typhlops reticulatus)
Xenophidia 6 families
Family	Common Names	Example Species	Example Photo
Acrochordidae Bonaparte, 1831	file snakes	Marine File Snake (Acrochordus granulatus)
Atractaspididae Günther, 1858	mole vipers	Stiletto Snake (Atractaspis bibroni)
Colubridae Oppel, 1811	colubrids	Grass Snake (Natrix natrix)
Elapidae Boie, 1827	cobras, coral snakes, kraits	King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)
Hydrophiidae Smith, 1926	sea snakes	Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Pelamis platurus)
Viperidae Oppel, 1811	vipers and pit vipers	Canebrake Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus)