Snake Multiomic Database

Family Lamprophiidae

Lamprophiidae family consist of 7 subfamilies with 300 species. Species in this family are moderately diverse. Most of these are terrestrial to semifossorial, but a few are arboreal. They are mainly ~ 1 m in length and some species are large to 1.5 m. Diverse body forms including typical terrestrial racer-morphology, blunt-headed, cylindrical-bodied burrower- morphology and big-headed, thin-bodied arboreal forms. Lamprophiids are feed on lizards and snakes and are all oviparous.

We estimated the emergence of Lamprophiidae at ~32 Mya using fossil calibrations. Analysis support Elapidae is the sister group of Lamprophiidae.

Reference:

  • Zug, G.R., Vitt, L., and Caldwell, J.P. Herpetology: an introductory biology of amphibians and reptiles[M]. 32 Jamestown Road, London NW1 7BY, UK, Academic press, 2014:620-622.
  • Shea, G., Shine, R., and Covacevich, J. C. Family Elapidae. In Fauna of Australia, Volume 2A: Amphibia & Reptilia. C. J. Gasby, G. J. B. Ross, and P. L. Beesley (Eds.)[M]. Canberra, Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service,1993:295–309.