Typhlopidae
Typhlopidae | |
---|---|
Ramphotyphlops braminus | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Serpentes |
Infraorder: | Scolecophidia |
Superfamily: | Typhlopoidea |
Family: | Typhlopidae Merrem, 1820 |
Synonyms | |
The Typhlopidae are a family of blind snakes.[2] They are found mostly in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and all mainland Australia and various islands.[3] The rostral scale overhangs the mouth to form a shovel-like burrowing structure. They live underground in burrows, and since they have no use for vision, their eyes are mostly vestigial. They have light-detecting black eye spots, and teeth occur in the upper jaw. The tail ends with a horn-like scale. Most of these species are oviparous. Currently, ten genera are recognized containing over 200 species.[2][4]
Geographic range
They are found in most tropical and many subtropical regions all over the world, particularly in Africa, Asia, islands in the Pacific, tropical America, and southeastern Europe.[1]
Genera
Genus[2] | Taxon author[2] | Species[2] | Common name | Geographic range[1] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Acutotyphlops | Wallach, 1995 | 5 | Eastern Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands | |
Afrotyphlops | Broadley & Wallach, 2009[5] | |||
Austrotyphlops | Wallach, 2006 | |||
Cyclotyphlops | Bosch & Ineich, 1994 | 1 | Indonesia: Selatan Province, southern Sulawesi | |
Grypotyphlops | Peters, 1881[6] | |||
Letheobia | Cope, 1869[7] | |||
Megatyphlops | Broadley & Wallach, 2009[5] | |||
Ramphotyphlops | Fitzinger, 1843 | 49 | long-tailed blind snakes[2] | Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, the Lesser Sundas, Moluccas, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Palau Islands, Australia, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, the Loyalty Islands, the Fiji Islands, and possibly New Calidonia |
Rhinotyphlops | Fitzinger, 1843 | 28 | India, the Middle East, and Africa south of the Sahara | |
TyphlopsT | Oppel, 1811 | 120 | blind snakes[2] | Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, tropical and subtropical Asia, most of Africa, Madagascar and certain islands of the Indian Ocean, the Philippines, Moluccas, New Guinea, Central America, South America, and the West Indies |
Former genera
Xenotyphlops, formerly classified as a Typhlopidae, is now classed as a Xenotyphlopidae.
See also
- List of typhlopid species and subspecies
- Typhlopidae by common name
- Typhlopidae by taxonomic synonyms
- List of snakes, overview of all snake genera
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Typhlopidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 14 August 2007.
- ↑ Shine. R, 2007 Australian Snakes, a natural history, New Holland Publishers Chatswood ISBN 978-1-876334-25-3
- ↑ Pyron, Robert Alexander; Burbrink, Frank T. and Wiens, John J. (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes". BMC Evolutionary Biology 13 (1): 93–145. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-93. PMC 3682911. PMID 23627680.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Broadley, Donald G., and Wallach, Van (2009). "A review of the eastern and southern African blind-snakes (Serpentes: Typhlopidae), excluding Letheobia Cope, with the description of two new genera and a new species". Zootaxa (2255): 1–100.
- ↑ Resurrected for a reclassified Rhinotyphlops acutus by Wallach (2003). Wallach, Van and Pauwels, Olivier S. G. (2004). "Typhlops lazelli, a new species of Chinese blindsnake from Hong Kong (Serpentes: Typhlopidae)". Breviora (512): 1–21.
- ↑ Resurrected by Broadley and Wallach (2007). Wallach, Van; Brown, R. M.; Diesmos, A. C. and Gee, G. V. A. (2007). "An Enigmatic New Species of Blind Snake from Luzon Island, Northern Philippines, with a Synopsis of the Genus Acutotyphlops (Serpentes: Typhlopidae)". Journal of Herpetology 41 (4): 690–702. doi:10.1670/206-5.1.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Typhlopidae. |
- Typhlopidae at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 3 November 2008.