The Uropeltoidea, also known as uropeltoid snakes, are a superfamily of

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

s that contains uropeltids (family

Uropeltidae The Uropeltidae, also Common name, commonly known as shield-tail snakes, shield-tailed snakes or earth snakes, are a Family (biology), family of primitive, nonvenomous, burrowing snakes native to Peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The name is derive ...

) and Asian pipesnakes (families Cylindrophiidae and Anomochilidae). As of 2018, Uropeltoidea contains 97 species, including the eponymous shield-tail snakes (genus '' Uropeltis'' with 26 species) and their relatives (68 species in six other genera), 14 species of Asian pipesnakes (genus ''

Cylindrophis The Cylindrophiidae are a monotypic Family (biology), family of secretive, semifossorial, non-venomous snakes containing the genus ''Cylindrophis'' found in southeastern Asia. These are burrowing snakes and most have a banded pattern on the belly ...

''), and three species of dwarf pipesnakes (genus '' Anomochilus''). The taxonomy of boas, pythons, 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 ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

, or

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

) is arbitrary. The clade name Uropeltoidea emphasizes the relatively close evolutionary relationship among these 71 species, which last shared a common ancestor about 48 I:36–60million years ago, in contrast to the more distant relationship between uropeltoids and their next closest relatives, pythonoids (the most recent common ancestor between uropeltoids and pythonoids lived ~73 I:59–87million years ago).

References

Alethinophidia Taxa named by Johannes Peter Müller {{Alethinophidia-stub