Pantherophis

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Pantherophis
Temporal range:
Ma[1][2]
Pantherophis guttatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Tribe: Lampropeltini
Genus: Pantherophis
Fitzinger, 1843[3]
Type species
Coluber guttanus
, 1766
Synonyms

Pantherophis is a

insects. While many species conservation status is categorized as "least concern", many local populations in some species have declined where some places have them listed as federally protected. The corn snake
(P. guttatus) is a popular pet reptile, due to the availability of captive-bred animals, their low maintenance and calm disposition, and the variety of color morphs. There are other species of Pantherophis that are in the pet trade, though are not as popular as the corn snake.

Field Characteristics

Member species in the genus Pantherophis are large terrestrial snakes, built for constriction. Pantherophis is characterized by having a divided cloacal plate. The dorsal scales are arranged in more than 30 rows around the body, and at least some of these are keeled, albeit faintly. All species lack subocular scales.[4] Each of the ten or so species can be further distinguished based on subtle characteristics, such as color markings, scale nuances, and geographic range.[4]

Systematics and Paleontology

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of Pantherophis has been a complicated area of research. The genus was named by the Austrian zoologist

Lampropeltis belong to the tribe Lampropeltini.[6]

There are currently four subgenera of Pantherophis, of which three are extant and one is extinct: Scotophis Baird & Girard, 1853, for the ratsnakes; †Palaeoelaphe Gilmore, 1938, for a Miocene fossil species;[2] Mintonius Collins & Taggart, 2008, for the foxsnakes; and Pantherophis for the cornsnake complex. There are a few studies that suggested the possibility that Pantherophis is paraphyletic in respect to Pituophis.[7] To maintain taxonomic stability, some of the aforementioned subgenera are reevaluated into proper genera. This, however, has not been supported by larger scale molecular trees concerning the relationships of various snake taxa.[6][8][9]

Phylogeny

The interspecies relationships of Pantherophis usually has the subgenera Pantherophis and Mintonius being sister taxa, with Scotophis at the root of the genus. Below is the widely supported phylogenetic tree of the species in the genus.[6][8][9]

Pantherophis
Scotophis
Mintonius
Pantherophis

Pantherophis guttatus

Pantherophis slowinskii

Pantherophis emoryi

Extant Species

Below is the list of valid species with their geographic distributions.[3][10]

Genus Pantherophis Fitzinger, 1843
Subgenus Scotophis Baird & Girard, 1853
Scientific Name Common Name Geographic Distribution Image Figure
Yarrow
, 1880) 		Baird's ratsnake Southwestern United States and adjacent northeastern Mexico.
Pantherophis obsoletus (Say, 1823) western ratsnake or Texas ratsnake West of the Mississippi River, from eastern and southern Iowa southward through Missouri and Arkansas to western Louisiana, westward to eastern Texas, northward through Oklahoma and eastern Kansas to southeastern Nebraska.
Pantherophis alleghaniensis (Holbrook, 1836) eastern ratsnake United States east of the Apalachicola River in Florida, east of the Chattahoochee River in Georgia, east of the Appalachian Mountains, north to southeastern New York and western Vermont, eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, south to the Florida Keys.
Pantherophis spiloides (A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & A.H.A. Duméril
, 1854) 		midland ratsnake or gray ratsnake Eastern and Central United States, west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River
Subgenus Mintonius Collins & Taggart, 2008
Pantherophis ramspotti Crother, White, Savage, Eckstut, Graham & Gardner, 2011 western foxsnake United States, west of the Mississippi River.
Pantherophis vulpinus (Baird & Girard, 1853) eastern foxsnake Eastern Great Lakes region of the United States, as well as adjacent western Ontario in Canada.
Subgenus Pantherophis Fitzinger, 1843
Pantherophis guttatus (Linnaeus
, 1766) 		corn snake Southeastern and central United States.
Pantherophis emoryi (Baird & Girard, 1853) Great Plains ratsnake United States, from Missouri to Nebraska, to Colorado, south to Texas, and into northern Mexico

Nota bene: In this list, a binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Pantherophis.

Fossil Remains

The fossil record of Pantherophis is the

Early Pliocene P. buisi which might be a basal species in the Scotophis subgenus,[1] and P. kansensis which is the sole species in the subgenus of Palaeoelaphe, the trunk vertebrae similar to Mintonius subgenus.[1] P. nebraskensis was another valid species, but it is considered to be a junior synonym of P. kansensis.[2]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0253337216
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4822-0847-4
  3. ^
    SSAR
    . Accessed 4 July 2011.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0700628902
    .
  5. ^ Utiger, U.; Helfenberger, N.; Schätti, B.; Schmidt, C.; Ruf, M.; Ziswiler, V. (2002). "Molecular Systematics and Phylogeny of Old and New World Ratsnakes ..." Archived 2020-07-22 at the Wayback Machine Russian Journal of Herpetology 9 (2): 105-124.
  6. ^
    PMID 19236930
    .
  7. PMID 27603205
    .
  8. ^
    PMID 23627680
    .
  9. ^
    S2CID 52170106
    .
  10. ^ Pantherophis. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

  • Fitzinger L (1843). Systema Reptilium, Fasciculus Primus, Amblyglossae. Vienna: Braumüller & Seidel. 106 pp. + indices. (Genus Pantherophis, p. 25.)
  • Gilmore CW
    (1938). "Fossil Snakes of North America". Geological Society of America Special Paper (9): 1–96. (Palaeoelaphe, new genus).
  • Utiger U, Helfenberger N, Schätti B, Schmidt C, Ruf M, Ziswiler V (2002). "Molecular systematics and phylogeny of Old and New World ratsnakes, Elaphe Auct., and related genera (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae)". Russian Journal of Herpetology 9 (2): 105-124.

External links

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