Acrantophis Jan, 1860 in Jan & Sordelli 1860-1866

Szyndlar, Zbigniew & Georgalis, Georgios L., 2023, An illustrated atlas of the vertebral morphology of extant non-caenophidian snakes, with special emphasis on the cloacal and caudal portions of the column, Vertebrate Zoology 73, pp. 717-886 : 717

Acrantophis Jan, 1860 in Jan & Sordelli 1860-1866

Material examined.

Acrantophis dumerili Jan , 1860 in Jan & Sordelli 1860-1866 (UF Herp 175572 [Morphosource. org: Media 000070007, ark:/87602/m4/ M70007 ]; UMMZ 190701; UMMZ 190725) .

Description (Figs 71-73).

Trunk vertebrae. Centrum much shorter than wide; cotyle and condyle slightly flattened; neural arch vaulted; posterior median notch of the neural arch deep; neural spine distinctly higher than long; prezygapophyseal accessory processes short; hypapophyses disappear at the level of the 80th vertebra approximately; haemal keel in following vertebrae well-developed, ridge-like; paracotylar foramina absent.

Trunk / caudal transition. The haemal keel in the last trunk vertebra is not larger than those observed in more anterior posterior trunk vertebrae. In the cloacal vertebrae, the keel is enlarged into a strongly built hypapophysis. In the entire caudal portion of the column, it is reduced to a bulb-like (or tubercle-like) haemal keel.

Number of vertebrae. Acrantophis dumerili UMMZ 190701): 270 (230+4+36, including a final fusion); Acrantophis dumerili (UF Herp 175572): 269 (232+4+33, including a final fusion).

Data from literature: Acrantophis dumerili : less than 300 (in this approximately 230 trunk) vertebrae (based on Hoffstetter 1960: fig. 2); Acrantophis madagascariensis ( Duméril & Bibron, 1844):?246 ± 10 trunk and cloacal vertebrae plus 34+ caudal vertebrae ( Alexander and Gans 1966).