Ungaliophiinae

Ungaliophiinae is a subfamily of booid snakes containing two genera, Ungaliophis (2 species) and Exiliboa (1 species). They are small constrictors that are found in Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Colombia. They eat mostly lizards and frogs and are poorly studied.

Ungaliophiinae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Boidae
Subfamily: Ungaliophiinae
Genera

These snakes were formerly thought to be closely related to two other genera, Tropidophis and Trachyboa; all four genera were united in the family (Tropidophiidae) based on the presence of a tracheal lung and the absence of a left lung. However, Ungaliophis and Exiliboa are now known to be more closely related to booid snakes,[1] whereas Tropidophis and Trachyboa are known to be more closely related to the South American red pipesnake Anilius.[2] Within Booidea, Ungaliophis and Exiliboa are thought to be most closely related to North American Charina and Lichanura boas.[3]

References

  1. Wilcox, TP; Zwickl, DJ; Heath, TA; Hillis, DM (2002). "Phylogenetic relationships of the dwarf boas and a comparison of Bayesian and bootstrap measures of phylogenetic support" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 25: 361–371.
  2. Vidal, N; Delmas, AS; Hedges, SB (2007). "The higher-level relationships of alethinophidian snakes inferred from seven nuclear and mitochondrial genes". In Henderson, RW; Powell, R (eds.). Biology of the Boas and Pythons (PDF). Eagle Mountain, Utah, USA: Eagle Mountain Publishing. pp. 27–33.
  3. 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.


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