Travancore shieldtail, Tamil nadu earth snake
Rhinophis travancoricus, commonly known as the Travancore shieldtail or Tamil Nadu earth snake, is a species of uropeltid snake endemic to India.
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
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starts withDark purplish brown, scales on the sides and on the ventrum edged with whitish. Anal region black. Ventral surface of tail yellow.
The total length of the type specimen is 17 cm (6+3⁄4 in).
Dorsal scales in 17 rows at midbody (in 19 rows behind the head). Ventrals 146; subcaudals 6.
Snout acutely pointed. Rostral slightly laterally compressed, not keeled, about ⅓ the length of the shielded part of the head. Nasals separated by the rostral. Eye in the ocular shield. No supraoculars. Frontal longer than broad. No temporals. No mental groove. Diameter of body 34 times in the total length. Ventrals about 1½ times the size of the contiguous scales. Tail ending in a large convex rugose shield, which is neither truncated nor spinose at the end. Caudal disc slightly shorter than the shielded part of the head.
It is found in southern India (Travancore, Trivandrum, Peermade, Ernakulam).
Type locality: "near Trevandrum, at the 6th mile-stone towards Vambayam".