On the basis of new material from Colombia, we describe external morphology, the hemipenis, osteology, musculature, and visceral morphology of Tropidodipsas perijanensis, a species previously known from the unique holotype and long assigned to Dipsas. Tropidodipsas perijanensis may be the sister species of all other Dipsadini or the sister species of a clade formed by Dipsas and Sibynomorphus. This distinctive South American species cannot be assigned to Tropidodipsas or to any other genus, and we erect a new genus for it. Our study of cephalic musculature identified a previously unreported division of the m. levator anguli oris and new insertion of the m. intermandibularis posterior superficialis. New characteristics of dipsadine hemipenes were visualized by Alizarin staining. Some osteological characters of Dipsadini support synonymization of Sibon and most species of Tropidodipsas, whereas visceral characters and published molecular data suggest that Dipsas, Sibon, and Sibynomorphus form a clade.
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1 December 2008
Systematics of the Enigmatic Dipsadine Snake Tropidodipsas perijanensis Alemán (Serpentes: Colubridae) and Review of Morphological Characters of Dipsadini
Michael B. Harvey,
Gilson Rivas Fuenmayor,
José Rances Caicedo Portilla,
José Vicente Rueda-Almonacid
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Dipsas perijanensis
Dipsas sanctijoannis
Lung morphology
musculature
osteology
Plesiodipsas new genus
Sibon