Typhlopidae

The Typhlopidae are a family of blind snakes.<ref name="ITIS">Template:ITIS</ref> They are found mostly in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and all mainland Australia and various islands.<ref>Shine, Richard (2007). Australian Snakes, a Natural History. Chatswood, New South Wales: New Holland Publishers. 224 pp. Template:ISBN.</ref> The rostral scale overhangs the mouth to form a shovel-like burrowing structure. They live underground in burrows, and since they have no use for vision, their eyes are mostly vestigial. They have light-detecting black eye spots, and teeth occur in the upper jaw. Typhlopids do not have dislocatable lower jaw articulations restricting them to prey smaller than their oral aperture. All species in the family Typhlopidae are fossorial and feed on social fossorial invertebrates such as termites and ants. The tracheal lung is present and chambered in all species. One species, the Brahminy's blind snake, is the only unisexual snake, with the entire population being female and reproducing via parthenogenesis.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The tail ends with a horn-like scale. Most of these species are oviparous. Currently, 18 genera are recognized containing over 200 species.<ref name="ITIS" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Evolution

The Typhlopidae are thought to have originated on Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous, along with their sister group, the Xenotyphlopidae. The common ancestor of both families is thought to have diverged from the Gerrhopilidae earlier in the Cretaceous, when Insular India broke away from Madagascar. Afterwards, the Typhlopidae are thought to have dispersed out of Madagascar (leaving behind a single basal genus, Madatyphlops) into mainland Africa and then Eurasia, in contrast to the Xenotyphlopidae which remained restricted to Madagascar. From these regions, the Typhlopidae went on to colonize the rest of the world, with African typhlopids rafting across the Atlantic to South America during the Paleocene, then colonizing the Caribbean during the Oligocene, while Asian typhlopids colonized Australia from Southeast Asia or Indonesia later in the Oligocene.<ref name="Vidal-2010">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Fossil record

Possible Typhlopid skin has been identified in Dominican amber.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Geographic range

They are found in most tropical and many subtropical regions all over the world, particularly in Africa, Asia, islands in the Pacific, tropical America, and southeastern Europe.<ref name="McD99"/>

Genera

Genus<ref name="ITIS"/>	Taxon author<ref name="ITIS"/>	Species<ref name="ITIS"/>	Common name	Geographic range<ref name="McD99"/>
Acutotyphlops	Wallach, 1995	5		Eastern Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
Afrotyphlops	Broadley & Wallach, 2009<ref name="Broadley-Wallach-2009">Template:Cite journal</ref>	29		sub-Saharan Africa
Amerotyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	19		Mexico through South America
Anilios	Gray, 1845	48		Australia and New Guinea.
Antillotyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	12		Caribbean islands
Argyrophis	Gray, 1845	12		Asia
Cubatyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	12		Caribbean islands
Cyclotyphlops	Bosch & Ineich, 1994	1		Indonesia: Selatan Province, southern Sulawesi
Grypotyphlops	W. Peters, 1881<ref>Resurrected for a reclassified Rhinotyphlops acutus by Wallach (2003). Template:Cite journal</ref>	1		peninsular India
Indotyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	23		Asia
Letheobia	Cope, 1869<ref>Resurrected by Broadley & Wallach (2007). Template:Cite journal</ref>	37		Africa and the Middle East
Madatyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	15		Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, Mauritius
Malayotyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	12		the Philippines and Indonesia
Ramphotyphlops	Fitzinger, 1843	22	long-tailed blind snakes<ref name="ITIS"/>	southern and southeast Asia, as well as many islands in the southern Pacific Ocean
Rhinotyphlops	Fitzinger, 1843	7		Africa
Sundatyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	1		Indonesia and East Timor
TyphlopsT	Oppel, 1811	20		the West Indies
Xerotyphlops	Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014	6		Palearctic

^TType genus<ref name="McD99"/>

Former genera

Xenotyphlops, formerly classified in the Typhlopidae, is now classed in the Xenotyphlopidae.

See also

• List of typhlopid species and subspecies

External links

• Template:NRDB family