Sonora (genus)
Encyclopedia
Sonora is a genus
of colubrid
snake
s commonly referred to as ground snakes. They range through central and northern Mexico
, and the southwestern United States
.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of colubrid
Colubrid
A colubrid is a member of the snake family Colubridae. This broad classification of snakes includes about two-thirds of all snake species on earth. The earliest species of the snake family date back to the Oligocene epoch. With 304 genera and 1,938 species, Colubridae is the largest snake family...
snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s commonly referred to as ground snakes. They range through central and northern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and the southwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Species
- filetail ground snake, Sonora aemula (CopeEdward Drinker CopeEdward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
, 1879) - Michoacan ground snake, Sonora michoacanensis (DugèsAlfredo DugèsAlfredo Dugès ; was a French-born, Mexican physician and naturalist who was born in Montpellier. He was the son of zoologist Antoine Louis Dugès...
, 1884) - common ground snake, Sonora semiannulataSonora semiannulataThe common ground snake is a species of small, harmless colubrid snake. It is sometimes referred to as the Western ground snake or variable ground snake as its patterning and coloration can vary widely, even within the same geographic region.-Geographic range:It is native to the southwestern...
BairdSpencer Fullerton BairdSpencer Fullerton Baird was an American ornithologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist. Starting in 1850 he was assistant-secretary and later secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C...
& GirardCharles Frédéric GirardCharles Frédéric Girard was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology.Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland as a student of Louis Agassiz. In 1847, he accompanied Agassiz as his assistant to Harvard...
, 1853