Boidae

Family Boidae Type genus. Boa Linnaeus 1758 Genus content. Boa, Chilabothrus, Corallus, Epicrates, Eunectes Diagnosis. Boids can be distinguished from all other similar or related taxa by the following combination of characters: internarial septum with large fenestra, anterior margin of the ventral lamina of the nasal indented in lateral view, anterolateral margin of horizontal lamina of nasal noticeably indented viewed dorsally, horizontal lamina of the nasal does not overlap dorsal surface of frontal, most of palatine process of maxilla occurs posteriorly within the orbit, anterior end of ectopterygoid consists of indistinct lateral and medial heads, supratemporal inclined slightly in lateral view, posterior end of supratemporal rounded but not dilated, parasphenoid wing large and without pedicellate ventral surface, dorsal margin of prearticular noticeably curved upward near attachment of adductor posterior muscle, cornua of hyobranchium discontinuous anteriorly, and shallow labial pits (see Kluge 1991). Phylogenetic definition. Includes the MRCA of included Boa, Chilabothrus, Corallus, Epicrates, and Eunectes species and all descendants thereof, and all species more closely related to Boa constrictor than to Candoia carinata or Eryx jaculus. Etymology. From the Latin boa for ���large snake,��� after an animal mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Distribution. New World tropics, from northern Mexico to Argentina, and the West Indies. Remarks. Several species in this group contain significant intra-specific genetic variation (Colston et al. 2013; Reynolds et al. 2014), and more species may be recognized in the future. This arrangement (family-level rank of the former boid subfamilies) provides a robust taxonomy for booid snakes. All families are strongly supported as monophyletic by both molecular and morphological data, and their nomenclature is thus unlikely to be affected in the future by the sampling of additional taxa or characters in phylogenetic analyses. The recognition of these ecomorphologically and biogeographically distinct groups as families mirrors other squamate and amphibian taxa such as Iguania (Frost & Etheridge 1989; Frost et al. 2001) and Ranoidea (Frost et al. 2006; Pyron & Wiens 2011), where large cosmopolitan families (Iguanidae and Ranidae) have been broken up into more manageable and geographically localized units. This classification should provide a stable basis for future revision and description of new species, and other comparative analyses.
Published as part of Pyron, R. Alexander, Reynolds, R. Graham & Burbrink, Frank T., 2014, A Taxonomic Revision of Boas (Serpentes: Boidae), pp. 249-260 in Zootaxa 3846 (2) on page 256, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3846.2.5, http://zenodo.org/record/230379
{"references":["Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii, Holmiae, 824 pp.","Kluge, A. G. (1991) Boine snake phylogeny and research cycles. Miscellaneous Publications of the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan, 178, 1 - 58.","Colston, T. J., Grazziotin, F. G., Shepard, D. B., Vitt, L. J., Colli, G. R., Henderson, R. W., Hedges, S. B., Bonatto, S., Zaher, H., Noonan, B. P. & Burbrink, F. T. (2013) Molecular systematics and historical biogeography of tree boas (Corallus spp.). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 66, 953 - 959.","Reynolds, R. G., Niemiler, M. L. & Revell, L. J. (2014) Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: multi locus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 71, 201 - 213. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1016 / j. ympev. 2013.11.011","Frost, D. R. & Etheridge, R. (1989) A phylogenetic analysis and taxonomy of iguanian lizards (Reptilia: Squamata). University of Kansas, Lawrence, 65 pp.","Frost, D. R., Etheridge, R. E., Janies, D. & Titus, T. A. (2001) Total evidence, sequence alignment, evolution of polychrotid lizards, and a reclassification of the Iguania (Squamata: Iguania). American Museum Novitates, 3343, 1 - 38. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1206 / 0003 - 0082 (2001) 343 2.0. co; 2","Frost, D. R., Grant, T., Faivovich, J., Bain, R. H., Haas, A., Haddad, C. F. B., De Sa, R. O., Channing, A., Wilkinson, M., Donnellan, S. C., Raxworthy, C. J., Campbell, J. A., Blotto, B. L., Moler, P., Drewes, R. C., Nussbaum, R. A., Lynch, J. D., Green, D. M. & Wheeler, W. C. (2006) The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 297, 8 - 370. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1206 / 0003 - 0090 (2006) 297 [0001: tatol] 2.0. co; 2","Pyron, R. A. & Wiens, J. J. (2011) A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 61, 543 - 583. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1016 / j. ympev. 2011.06.012"]}