See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/348408429

TREE of SNAKES – Serpentes Phylogeny Poster

Poster · January 2021

CITATIONS READS

0 227

1 author:

Theodor C. H. Cole
Freie Universität Berlin
659 PUBLICATIONS   122 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Euphorbiaceae Phylogeny Poster (EuphorbPP) View project

Rubiaceae Phylogeny Poster (RubPP) View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Theodor C. H. Cole on 12 January 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Tree of Snakes
Serpentes Phylogeny Poster
Leptotyphlopidae slender blind snakes 142

Typhlopoidea Gerrhopilidae Indo-Malayan blind snakes 21

Typhlopidae typical blind snakes 275

Anomalepididae early blind snakes 20

Tropidophiidae dwarf boas 35

Aniliidae coral cylinder snake, false coral snake 1

Bolyeriidae splitjaw snakes, Mauritius snakes, Round Island boas 2

Xenopeltidae sunbeam snakes 2

Pythonoidea Loxocemidae Mexican burrowing python 1

Pythonidae pythons 38

Calabariidae Calabar ground python, African burrowing python 1

Sanziniidae Madagascar boas 4

Booidea

Charinidae rubber boas 4

Ungaliophiidae dwarf boas 3

Erycidae Old World sand boas 13

C andoiidae Pacific boas 5

Boidae boids (boas) 35

Cylindrophiidae Asian pipe snakes 15

Uropeltidae
Uropeltoidea
shield-tailed snakes 60

Acrochordidae file snakes, wart snakes 3

Xenodermidae xenodermids 23

Caenophidia

Pareidae pareids 33

Viperidae● viperids (pit vipers and pitless vipers) ca. 360

Homalopsidae (●) Indo-Australian water snakes, mudsnakes, bockadams > 50

Cyclocoridae cyclocorids 7

SERPENTES Elapidae● elapids (coral snakes, cobras, mambas, sea snakes, kraits etc.) ca. 400

Snakes Elapoidea
General Characteristics
ectothermic amniotes Lamprophiidae lamprophiids 86
scales overlapping
skull bones: many jointed; jaw mobile (prey swallowed whole)
Jacobson‘s / vomeronasal organ (VNO); tongue-flicking
vertebrae (ribs) 100–500
NO external limbs (reduced pelvic girdle/vestigial claws in some)
Pseudoxyrhophiidae pseudoxyrhophiids 90

eyelids absent: ocular scale/eye cap (brille) shed in molting

Atractaspididae●
ears: internal, but NO external ear opening
paired organs, incl. lungs: left member usually reduced mole vipers, stiletto snakes, burrowing asps 70
plus tracheal lung in some
bladder lacking
hemipenes: internal fertilization; oviparous (some ovoviviparous)

Psammophiidae
venom-injecting apparatus (modified saliva/hollow fangs) in some
psammophids (African sand snakes a.o.) 55
worldwide (up to recently not: Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Hawaii,
New Zealand, smaller islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific)

ca. 520genera
ca. 3800 species
Natricidae natricids (keelbacks a.o.) ca. 250

Pseudoxenodontidae bamboo snakes, mountain snakes 10

Dipsadidae dipsadids ca. 800

Colubroidea

Sibynophiidae sibynophiids (many-toothed snakes) 12

Theodor C. H. Cole, Dipl. Biol. Calamariidae reed snakes ca. 100

Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences (DCPS)

Institute of Biology – Botany

Grayiidae
Freie Universität Berlin
Altensteinstr. 6 African water snakes 4
D-14195 Berlin, Germany

( ●)
© Cole 2021 (CC-BY)

COLE TCH (2021) TREE of SNAKES – Serpentes Phylogeny Poster

• hypothetical tree with 37 families based on Burbrink FT et al. (2020) Syst. Biol. 69(3): 502–520 Colubridae colubrids ca. 750
• branch lengths deliberate, not reflecting true time spans; ● venomous
• species numbers (in gray) according to Uetz P, Freed P, Hošek J (eds) (2020) The Reptile Database, http://www.reptile-database.org

View publication stats