The Alethinophidia are an infraorder of snakes that includes all snakes other than blind snakes and thread snakes. Snakes have long been grouped into families within Alethinophidia based on their morphology, especially that of their teeth. More modern phylogenetic hypotheses using genetic data[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][excessive citations] support the recognition of 19 extant families (see below), although the taxonomy of alethinophidian snakes has long been debated, and ultimately the decision whether to assign a particular clade to a particular Linnaean rank (such as a superfamily, family, or subfamily) is arbitrary.

Alethinophidia
Temporal range: 94–0 Ma Cenomanian to Present[1]
Grass snake, Natrix natrix
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Infraorder: Alethinophidia
Nopcsa, 1923
Subclades
Common names: advanced snakes.

Etymology

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The infraorder name Alethinophidia derives from the two Ancient Greek words ἀληθινός (alēthinós), meaning "truthful, genuine", and ὄφις (óphis), meaning "snake".[12][13]

Fossil record

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Fossils of alethinophidians were found in Cenomanian (Middle Cretaceous) sites of Wadi Milk Formation in Wadi Abu Hashim, Sudan.[1] Coniophis presents the vertebral morphology similar to modern-day Aniliidae. Two extinct families from the same location, the Anomalophiidae and Russellophiidae, also belong to the Alethinophidia. Krebsophis is the earliest russellophiid. The family Nigerophiidae includes both aquatic[1] Nubianophis from Wadi Abu Hashim and Nigerophis from the Palaeocene of Niger. The genus Eoanilius (belongs to Aniliidae) appeared in the Eocene. It is also existed in Oligocene and early Miocene.[1] The extinct marine Simoliophidae are known from the Cenomanian of North Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, indicating a Tethyan distribution; they are notable for preserving evidence of vestigial hindlimbs.[14]

Systematics

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Extant taxa

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Fossil taxa

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Based on Gower & Zaher (2022):[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d J.-C. Rage and C. Werner. 1999."Mid-Cretaceous (Cenomanian) snakes from Wadi Abu Hashim, Sudan: The earliest snake assemblage". 35, 85-110
  2. ^ "Alethinophidia". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  3. ^ Pyron, R. A.; Burbrink, F.; Wiens, J. J. (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13 (1): 93. Bibcode:2013BMCEE..13...93P. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-93. PMC 3682911. PMID 23627680.
  4. ^ Reynolds, RG; Niemiller, ML; Revell, LJ (2014). "Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 71: 201–213. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.011. PMID 24315866. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  5. ^ Streicher, J. W.; Ruane, S. (2018). "Phylogenomics of Snakes". eLS: 1–8. doi:10.1002/9780470015902.a0027476. ISBN 9780470015902.
  6. ^ Figueroa, A.; McKelvy, A. D.; Grismer, L. L.; Bell, C. D.; Lailvaux, S. P. (2016). "A species-level phylogeny of extant snakes with description of a new colubrid subfamily and genus". PLOS ONE. 11 (9): e0161070. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1161070F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161070. PMC 5014348. PMID 27603205.
  7. ^ Zheng, Y; Wiens, JJ (2016). "Combining phylogenomic and supermatrix approaches, and a time-calibrated phylogeny for squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) based on 52 genes and 4162 species" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 94 (Pt B): 537–547. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.10.009. PMID 26475614.
  8. ^ Scanlon, J. D.; Lee, M. S. Y. (2011). Aldridge, R. D.; Sever, D. M. (eds.). The Major Clades of Living Snakes: Morphological Evolution, Molecular Phylogeny, and Divergence Dates in Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes. Enfield, NH: Science Publishers. pp. 55–95.
  9. ^ Vidal, N.; Delmas, A. S.; Hedges, S. B. (2007). Henderson, R. W.; Powell, R. (eds.). The higher-level relationships of alethinophidian snakes inferred from seven nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Eagle Mountain, Utah, USA: Eagle Mountain Publishing. pp. 27–33.
  10. ^ Vitt, L. J.; Caldwell, J. P. (2014). Herpetology: an introductory biology of amphibians and reptiles (4th ed.). Burlington: Academic Press. pp. 108–109.
  11. ^ Uetz, Peter. "Serpentes at The Reptile Database". The Reptile Database. EMBL. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  12. ^ Bailly, Anatole (1981-01-01). Abrégé du dictionnaire grec français. Paris: Hachette. ISBN 978-2010035289. OCLC 461974285.
  13. ^ Bailly, Anatole. "Greek-french dictionary online". www.tabularium.be. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  14. ^ Hsiang, Allison Y.; Field, Daniel J.; Webster, Timothy H.; Behlke, Adam DB; Davis, Matthew B.; Racicot, Rachel A.; Gauthier, Jacques A. (2015-05-20). "The origin of snakes: revealing the ecology, behavior, and evolutionary history of early snakes using genomics, phenomics, and the fossil record". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 15 (1): 87. Bibcode:2015BMCEE..15...87H. doi:10.1186/s12862-015-0358-5. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 4438441. PMID 25989795.
  15. ^ "Search results | The Reptile Database". reptile-database.reptarium.cz. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  16. ^ Gower, David J.; Zaher, Hussam (2022-08-11). The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. doi:10.1017/9781108938891.027.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
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