The Pythonoidea, also known as pythonoid snakes, are a superfamily of
snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...
s that contains pythons (family
Pythonidae) and other closely related python-like snakes (but not boas, which are in a separate superfamily called
Booidea). As of 2022, Pythonoidea contains 39 species, including the eponymous genus ''
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
'' and 10 other genera of pythons (''
Antaresia'', ''
Apodora'', ''
Aspidites'', ''
Bothrochilus'', ''
Leiopython'', ''
Liasis
''Liasis'' is a genus of pythons found in Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia. Currently, three extant species are recognized and one giant fossil species ''L. dubudingala'', estimated to have been around 10 m (33 ft) in length.
Geog ...
'', ''
Malayopython'', ''
Morelia
Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and lar ...
'', ''
Nyctophilopthon'' and ''
Simalia''), all in the family Pythonidae, as well as two lesser-known families, Loxocemidae (one species, the Mexican burrowing python, in the genus ''
Loxocemus'') and Xenopeltidae (two species of sunbeam snakes in the genus ''
Xenopeltis'').
The taxonomy of pythons, boas, and other henophidian snakes has long been debated, and ultimately the decision whether to assign a particular clade to a particular
Linnaean rank (such as a
superfamily,
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
, or
subfamily) is arbitrary. The clade name Pythonoidea emphasizes the relatively close evolutionary relationship among these 43 species, which last shared a common ancestor about 62
I: 46-78million years ago, in contrast to the more distant relationship between pythonoids and their next closest relatives,
uropeltoids (the most recent common ancestor between pythonoids and uropeltoids lived ~73
I:59-87million years ago).
References
Alethinophidia
{{Alethinophidia-stub