Madatyphlops

Madatyphlops
Madatyphlops arenarius specimen
Scientific classification Edit this 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]

  1. ^ Ali, Jason R.; Hedges, S. Blair (2023-05-04). "The colonisation of Madagascar by land‐bound vertebrates". Biological Reviews. doi:10.1111/brv.12966. ISSN 1464-7931.