Schokari sand racer

The Schokari sand racer (Psammophis schokari) is a species of lamprophiid snake found in parts of Asia and Africa. Psammophis schokari aegyptius has been elevated to species status. Many people refer to snakes in the genus Psammophis as colubrids, but this is now known to be incorrect—they were once classified in the Colubridae, but our more sophisticated understanding of the relationships among the groups of snakes has led herpetologists to reclassify Psammophis and its relatives into Lamprophiidae, a family more closely related to Elapidae than to Colubridae.[1]

Schokari sand racer
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Lamprophiidae
Genus: Psammophis
Species:
P. schokari
Binomial name
Psammophis schokari
(Forskal, 1775)

Distribution

Northwest India, Afghanistan (Leviton 1959: 461), Pakistan, south Turkmenistan, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman,[2] Syria, Iraq, Iran (Kavir Desert), and Yemen.

Type locality: Yemen.

References
  1. Pyron, R.A.; Burbrink, F.T.; Wiens, J.J. (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13 (1): 93. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-93. PMC 3682911. PMID 23627680.
  2. "One of the fastest snakes caught on camera". The Times of Oman. 2018-12-23. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  • Forskål, P. 1775 Descriptiones animalium, avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium; quae in itinere Orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. Mölleri, Hauniae, xxxiv + 164 pp.
  • Marx, H. 1988 The colubrid snake, Psammophis schokari, from the Arabian Peninsula. Fieldiana Zool. New Ser. 40 (1383): 1-16


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