Candoia Gray, 1842

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

Candoia Gray, 1842

Material examined.

Candoia aspera ( Günther, 1877) (UMMZ 190729); Candoia bibroni ( Duméril & Bibron, 1844) (UMMZ 190730); Candoia carinata (Schneider, 1801) (NHMUK 83.6.28.51; UMMZ 190731; ZFMK uncat.).

Description (Figs 96-102).

Trunk vertebrae. Centrum shorter than wide or as short as wide; cotyle and condyle orbicular to slightly depressed; neural arch moderately vaulted; posterior median notch of the neural arch deep; neural spine height variable among different species: either of medium height ( Candoia bibroni , one vertebra studied), or distinctly higher than long ( Candoia carinata ) or more than twice as high as long ( Candoia aspera , two vertebrae studied) - in a very old individual of Candoia carinata (ZFMK uncat.; Fig. 102 ), the neural spine is very low; prezygapophyses usually not much inclined, with the exception of a vertebra of Candoia aspera (UMMZ 190729; Fig. 96 ), where these are strongly dorsally inclined; prezygapophyseal accessory processes vestigial; hypapophyses present throughout the trunk portion of the column, of varying shape, usually plate-like (two of three specimens of Candoia carinata ; C. aspera ); paracotylar foramina present; parazygantral foramina present in two specimens of Candoia carinata (UMMZ 190731; ZFMK uncat.) but absent in another specimen of the same species (NHMUK 83.6.28.51) and in Candoia aspera and C. bibroni .

Trunk / caudal transition (for Candoia carinata ). The plate-like hypapophysis is present in anterior cloacal vertebra. In the last cloacal vertebra, it changes into a haemal keel, gradually becoming larger and wider in the succeeding caudal vertebrae. Paired haemapophyses appear first on the 5th caudal vertebra.

Number of vertebrae. Candoia carinata (NHMUK 83.6.28.51): 213+ (172+3+38+).

Data from literature: Candoia aspera : 144 trunk and cloacal vertebrae plus 21+ caudal vertebrae ( Alexander and Gans 1966); Candoia carinata : 190 trunk vertebrae plus 4 cloacal vertebrae plus unknown number of caudal vertebrae ( Gasc 1974); Candoia paulsoni (Stull, 1956): 190 trunk vertebrae plus unknown number of cloacal and caudal vertebrae ( Tsuihiji et al. 2012).

Figures

Figure 96. Candoiidae: Candoia aspera (UMMZ 190729), trunk vertebrae.

Figure 102. Candoiidae: Candoia carinata (ZFMK uncat.), trunk vertebrae (of a very old individual).