Madatyphlops

Madatyphlops
Madatyphlops arenarius specimen
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Typhlopidae
Genus:	Madatyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014

Madatyphlops is a genus of snakes in the family Typhlopidae.

Madatyphlops may represent a surviving clade of the ancestral Typhlopidae, which are thought to have originated on Madagascar during the Cretaceous, before later dispersing to mainland Africa and then worldwide. This makes it, Xenotyphlops , and the Madagascan big-headed turtle the only Malagasy terrestrial vertebrates whose isolation on Madagascar is due to Gondwanan vicariance. ^[1]

Geographic range

The 15 species of the genus Madatyphlops are found mostly on Madagascar, but also occur on the Comoro Islands. A fossil species occurred on Mauritius.

Species

The following species are recognized as being valid. ^[2]

• Madatyphlops albanalis (Rendahl, 1918)
• Madatyphlops andasibensis (Wallach & Glaw, 2009)
• Madatyphlops arenarius (Grandidier, 1872)
• Madatyphlops boettgeri (Boulenger, 1893)
• Madatyphlops cariei (Hoffstetter, 1946) – extinct
• Madatyphlops comorensis (Boulenger, 1889)
• Madatyphlops decorsei (Mocquard, 1901)
• Madatyphlops domerguei (Roux-Estève, 1980)
• Madatyphlops eudelini Hawlitschek, Scherz, Webster, Ineich & Glaw, 2021 ^[3]
• Madatyphlops madagascariensis (Boettger, 1877)
• Madatyphlops microcephalus (F. Werner, 1909)
• Madatyphlops mucronatus (Boettger, 1880)
• Madatyphlops ocularis (Parker, 1927)
• Madatyphlops rajeryi (Renoult & Raselimanana, 2009)
• Madatyphlops reuteri (Boettger, 1881)

Nota bene : A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Madatyphlops.

References

1. Ali, Jason R.; Hedges, S. Blair (2023-05-04). "The colonisation of Madagascar by land-bound vertebrates" . Biological Reviews. 98 (5): 1583–1606. doi:10.1111/brv.12966. ISSN   1464-7931. PMID   37142264.
2. Genus Madatyphlops at The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
3. Hawlitschek, Oliver; Scherz, Mark D.; Webster, Kathleen C.; Ineich, Ivan; Glaw, Frank (2021). "Morphological, osteological, and genetic data support a new species of Madatyphlops (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) endemic to Mayotte Island, Comoros Archipelago". The Anatomical Record. 304 (10): 2249–2263. doi: 10.1002/ar.24589 . ISSN   1932-8494. PMID   33611842.

Further reading

• Hedges, S. Blair; Marion, Angela B.; Lipp, Kelly M.; Marin, Julie; Vidal, Nicolas (2014). "A taxonomic framework for typhlopid snakes from the Caribbean and other regions (Reptilia, Squamata)". Caribbean Herpetology49: 1-61. (Madatyphlops, new genus, p. 42).