Extinct genus of snakes
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Boipeba is an extinct genus of blind snake from the Late Cretaceous (post-Turonian) of Brazil. It contains a single species, Boipeba tayasuensis. The species is known from a single precloacal vertebra from the Adamantina Formation of northwestern São Paulo.
Etymology.
The genus name, "Boipeba", is Tupi-Guarani for "flat snake". The specific epithet "tayasuensis" refers to the species' discovery in Taiaçu municipality.
Taxonomy.
"Boipeba" was a scolecophidian, belonging to the same group that contains modern blind snakes. Phylogenetic analyses indicate a deep (Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous) divergence between blind snakes and all other extant snakes, but until "Boipeba"'s discovery, there was no known fossil evidence of blind snakes during the Mesozoic.
"Boipeba" is thought to be the sister group to the Typhlopoidea, being more derived than Anomalepididae and Leptotyphlopidae, but basal to all other blind snake families. The discovery of "Boipeba" in Brazil supports the idea that the Typhlopoidea may have originated in Gondwana.
Description.
One of "Boipeba"'s distinguishing features is its large size compared to modern blind snakes; only the extant "Afrotyphlops schlegelii" and "Afrotyphlops mucruso" of Africa rival it in size (about 1 meter in length). This indicates that early blind snakes may have been large in size, and only later underwent miniaturization.
References.
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