Snake Multiomic Database
The Colubridae family, most structurally diverse group of snakes, has 1755 species spanning more than 100 genera. They are called “common snakes” that occur in most of continents except Antarctica and Arctic. They lack obvious infrared receptors occur in pits or surface indentations, besides, girdle and limb relics are completely absent. Taxonomy and relationships among these snakes will continue to change in a long run as new data and analysis is constantly coming.
Colubridae snakes are highly diverse in body form, behavior and ecology. They are small to 0.16-0.19m or large to 3.7 m. There are slender, elongate viperine, racer-like, or muscular serpentine, as well as many others of body forms in Colubrids. They invade from brackish water habitats to high montane forest and are desert or aquatic inhabitants. Some are burrowers, many are terrestrial or semiarboreal, and others are arboreal. They are diet generalists or specialists and often prey on small vertebrates and occasionally invertebrates. Specialists may eat only orthopteran insects or birds. Most of the snakes are oviparous and exceptions are usually species with small body size.
We estimated the emergence of Boidae at ~39 Mya using fossil calibrations. Analysis reveal Elapidae and Lamprophiidae are the sister groups of Colubridae.