Amerophidia Explained

The Amerophidia,[1] also known as amerophidian snakes, are a clade of snakes that contains two families: Aniliidae (containing a single species, Anilius scytale, the American red pipe snake or false coral snake) and the boa-like Tropidophiidae (containing two genera, Trachyboa (with two species) and Tropidophis (with either 17 or 33, depending on the authority)).[2]

The sister-group relationship between these two families is surprising and unintuitive when only morphology is considered, because Aniliidae more closely resemble the Asian pipe snakes in the families Cylindrophiidae and Anomochilidae, whereas Tropidophiidae more closely resemble constricting, macrostomatan snakes such as Boidae and Pythonidae. However, every major phylogenetic analysis since 2007[3] [4] [5] [6] has found support for the idea that these two families are one another's closest relatives, despite having last shared a common ancestor about 91 MYA [CI: 77-104].[7] The oldest fossil member of this family is the extinct Australophis from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.[8] [9]

Notes and References

  1. Vidal . Nicolas . Delmas . Anne-Sopie . Hedges . S. Blair . 2007 . The higher-level relationships of alethinophidian snakes inferred from seven nuclear and mitochondrial genes . Biology of the boas and pythons (Henderson & Powell) . 27-33.
  2. Web site: Uetz. Peter. Tropidophiidae at The Reptile Database. The Reptile Database. 13 May 2018.
  3. Figueroa. A.. McKelvy. A. D.. Grismer. L. L.. Bell. C. D.. Lailvaux. S. P.. A species-level phylogeny of extant snakes with description of a new colubrid subfamily and genus. PLOS ONE. 2016. 11. 9. e0161070. 5014348. 10.1371/journal.pone.0161070. 27603205. 2016PLoSO..1161070F. free.
  4. Zheng. Y. Wiens. JJ. Combining phylogenomic and supermatrix approaches, and a time-calibrated phylogeny for squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) based on 52 genes and 4162 species. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution. 2016. 94. Pt B. 537–547. 10.1016/j.ympev.2015.10.009. 26475614.
  5. Gower. D. J.. Vidal. N.. Spinks. J. N.. McCarthy. C. J.. The phylogenetic position of Anomochilidae (Reptilia: Serpentes), first evidence from DNA sequences. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 2005. 43. 4. 315–320. 10.1111/j.1439-0469.2005.00315.x.
  6. Reynolds. R. G.. Niemiller. M. L.. Revell. L. J.. Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: Multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution. 2014. 71. 201–213. 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.011. 24315866. 2018-05-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20151202212953/http://www.rgrahamreynolds.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Reynolds_etal_2014_MPE.pdf. 2015-12-02. dead.
  7. Hedges. SB. Marin. J. Suleski. M. Paymer. M. Kumar. S. Tree of Life Reveals Clock-Like Speciation and Diversification. Mol Biol Evol. 2015. 32. 4. 835–845. 10.1093/molbev/msv037. 25739733. 4379413.
  8. Head. Jason J.. 2015-04-14. Fossil calibration dates for molecular phylogenetic analysis of snakes 1: Serpentes, Alethinophidia, Boidae, Pythonidae. Palaeontologia Electronica. English. 18. 1. 1–17. 10.26879/487. 1094-8074. free.
  9. Web site: Fossilworks: Australophis. 2020-11-30. fossilworks.org.

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