Macrostomata

African rock python Python sebae brooding eggs, from Tropicario.

Belongs within: Serpentes.
Contains: Tropidophiidae, Colubroidea.

The Macrostomata is the clade including living non-fossorial snakes. Members of the Macrostomata have a hinged supratemporal, increasing the flexibility of the skull (Longrich et al. 2012).

Synapomorphies (from Longrich et al. 2012): Orbital margin of prefrontal vertical; maxilla ascending process absent; quadrate ramus of pterygoid with groove; coronoid posteroventral process absent; pelvic elements fused; premaxilla displaced anteriorly; parietal sagittal crest reduced anteriorly; supratemporal elongate.

<==Macrostomata [Booidea, Henophidia]
    |  i. s.: Pachyophis MH11
    |         Calabaria [Calabariidae] VH02
    |           `--C. reinhardtii VH02
    |--+--Xenopeltis [Xenopeltidae] MH11
    |  |    `--X. unicolor VH02
    |  `--Loxocemus [Loxocemidae] VH02
    |       `--L. bicolor VH02
    `--+--+--Bolyeriidae AZ06
       |  |    |--Casarea dussumieri VH02
       |  |    |--Bolyeria multicarinata FS01
       |  |    `--Xenophidion [Xenophidiidae] LBG12
       |  |         `--X. acanthognathus LBG12
       |  `--+--Tropidophiidae AZ06
       |     `--Caenophidia VH02
       |          |--Colubroidea MH11
       |          `--Acrochordidae [Acrochordoidea] AZ06
       |               |--Chersydrus R88
       |               `--Acrochordus RB03
       |                    |--A. dehmi Hoffstetter 1964 RB03
       |                    |--A. granulatus RB03
       |                    `--A. javanicus GWN71
       `--+--Ungaliophiinae LBG12
          |    |--Exiliboa placata LBG12
          |    `--Ungaliophis LBG12
          |         |--U. continentalis VH02
          |         `--U. panamensis LBG12
          `--+--Erycinae LBG12
             |    |--+--Eryx VH02
             |    |  |    |--E. colubrinus LBG12
             |    |  |    `--E. miliaris VH02
             |    |  `--Gongylophis colubrinus VH02
             |    `--+--Charina bottae VH02
             |       `--Lichanura trivirgata LBG12
             `--+--Pythoninae [Pythonidae] LBG12
                |    |  i. s.: Morelia S05
                |    |           |--M. boeleni VH02
                |    |           `--M. variegata G54
                |    |         Aspidites LBG12
                |    |           |--A. melanocephalus HD04
                |    |           `--A. ramsayi ADD08
                |    |--Python Daudin 1803 VH02, RB05
                |    |    |--P. europaeus Szyndlar & Rage 2003 RB05
                |    |    |--P. molurus Linnaeus 1758 S05
                |    |    |--P. regius GWN71
                |    |    |--P. reticulatus [=Broghammerus reticulatus] N10
                |    |    |--P. sebae Gmelin 1789 S05
                |    |    `--P. spolotes B32
                |    `--+--Apodora papuana VH02
                |       `--Liasis VH02
                |            |--L. maximus Werner 1936 K08
                |            |--L. olivacea Gray 1842 S05
                |            |    |--L. o. olivacea HD04
                |            |    `--L. o. barroni HD04
                |            `--L. savuensis VH02
                `--Boinae [Boidae] LBG12
                     |  i. s.: 0--Corallus [incl. Xenoboa] K88
                     |         |    |--C. caninus DS86
                     |         |    `--C. enydris DS86
                     |         `--+--Epicrates K88
                     |            |    |--E. cenchria K88
                     |            |    |    |--E. c. cenchria DS86
                     |            |    |    `--E. c. gaigei DS86
                     |            |    `--+--E. angulifer K88
                     |            |       `--+--E. striatus K88
                     |            |          `--+--+--E. chrysogaster K88
                     |            |             |  `--E. exsul K88
                     |            |             |--+--E. inornatus K88
                     |            |             |  `--E. subflavus K88
                     |            |             `--+--E. gracilis K88
                     |            |                `--+--E. fordii K88
                     |            |                   `--E. monensis K88
                     |            `--Eunectes murinus Linnaeus 1758 K88, S05
                     |         Antaresia HD04
                     |           |--A. perthensis HD04
                     |           `--A. stimsoni (Smith 1981) ADD08
                     |         Bavarioboa hermi RB03
                     |         Enygrus R13
                     |           |--E. asper R13
                     |           |--E. bibroni R13
                     |           |    |--E. b. bibroni R13
                     |           |    `--E. b. australis [=Boa australis] R13
                     |           `--E. carinatus R13
                     |         Sanzinia K88
                     |--+--Acrantophis madagascariensis VH02
                     |  `--Candoia carinata VH02
                     `--Boa constrictor VH02

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[AZ06] Apesteguía, S. & H. Zaher. 2006. A Cretaceous terrestrial snake with robust hindlimbs and a sacrum. Nature 440: 1037-1040.

[ADD08] Aplin, K., S. Donnellan & J. Dell. 2008. The herpetofauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 39-53.

[B32] Bourne, G. 1932. Sarcosporidia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 19: 1-8.

[DS86] Dixon, J. R. & P. Soini. 1986. The Reptiles of the Upper Amazon Basin, Iquitos Region, Peru. Milwaukee Public Museum: Milwaukee.

[FS01] Flannery, T. & P. Schouten. 2001. A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World’s Extinct Animals. Text Publishing: Melbourne.

[G54] Glauert, L. 1954. Reptiles and frogs. In The Archipelago of the Recherche (J. H. Willis, ed.) pp. 29-35. Australian Geographical Society: Melbourne.

[GWN71] Gorman, G. C., A. C. Wilson & M. Nakanishi. 1971. A biochemical approach towards the study of reptilian phylogeny: evolution of serum albumin and lactic dehydrogenase. Systematic Zoology 20 (2): 167-185.

[HD04] How, R. A., & J. Dell. 2004. Reptile assemblage of the Abydos Plain, north-eastern Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (3): 85-95.

[K88] Kluge, A. G. 1988. Parsimony in vicariance biogeography: a quantitative method and a Greater Antillean example. Systematic Zoology 37 (4): 315-328.

[K08] Korsós, Z. 2008. History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 100: 37-93.

[LBG12] Longrich, N. R., B.-A. S. Bhullar & J. A. Gauthier. 2012. A transitional snake from the Late Cretaceous period of North America. Nature 488: 205-208.

[MH11] Müller, J., C. A. Hipsley, J. J. Head, N. Kardjilov, A. Hilger, M. Wuttke & R. R. Reisz. 2011. Eocene lizard from Germany reveals amphisbaenian origins. Nature 473: 364-367.

[N10] Naish, D. 2010. Tetrapod Zoology: Book One. CFZ Press: Bideford (UK).

[RB05] Rage, J.-C., & S. Bailon. 2005. Amphibians and squamate reptiles from the late early Miocene (MN 4) of Béon 1 (Montréal-du-Gers, southwestern France). Geodiversitas 27 (3): 413-441.

[RB03] Rage, J.-C., S. Bajpai, J. G. M. Thewissen & B. N. Tiwari. 2003. Early Eocene snakes from Kutch, western India, with a review of the Palaeophiidae. Geodiversitas 25 (4): 695-716.

[R88] Rieppel, O. 1988. The classification of the Squamata. In The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods, vol. 1. Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds (M. J. Benton, ed.) pp. 261-293. Clarendon Press: Oxford.

[R13] Roux, J. 1913. Les reptiles de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et des îles Loyalty. In Nova Caledonia: Forschungen in Neu-Caledonian und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. A. Zoologie vol. 1, Heft II (F. Sarasin & J. Roux, eds) pp. 79-160. C. W. Kreidels Verlag: Wiesbaden.

[S05] Scanlon, J. D. 2005. Cranial morphology of the Plio-Pleistocene giant madtsoiid snake Wonambi naracoortensis. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50: 139-180.

[VH02] Vidal, N., & S. B. Hedges. 2002. Higher-level relationships of snakes inferred from four nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Comptes Rendus Biologies 325: 977-985.

[WH02] Worthy, T. H., & R. N. Holdaway. 2002. The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric life of New Zealand. Indiana University Press: Bloomington (Indiana).