''Madatyphlops cariei'' is an extinct

blind snake The Scolecophidia, commonly known as blind snakes or thread snakes, are an infraorder of snakes. They range in length from . All are fossorial (adapted for burrowing). Five families and 39 genera are recognized. The Scolecophidia infraorder is m ...

species which was endemic to

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

. It is named for Paul Carié (1876–1930), an amateur naturalist attached to the

Museum national d'Histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loca ...

, who made excavations in

Mare aux Songes The Mare aux Songes () swamp is a lagerstätte located close to the sea in south eastern Mauritius. Many subfossils of recently extinct animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of dodos w ...

around 1900 where the remains of this species were discovered.

Description

It is known only from seven fossil vertebrae from the middle region of the trunk, including two sets of connected vertebra and one isolated vertebra. With an estimated length of more than 200 mm it was significantly larger than ''

Ramphotyphlops braminus ''Indotyphlops braminus'', commonly known as the brahminy blind snake and other names, is a non-venomous blind snake species found mostly in Africa and Asia, but has been introduced in many other parts of the world. They are completely fossori ...

'', a blind snake which still occurs on Mauritius. ''T. cariei'' was also distinct by various characters of the vertebral morphology.Hoffstetter, 1946 : Les Typhlopidae fossiles. Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, ser. 2, vol. 18, n. 3, p. 313.

Extinction

This species was classified as extinct in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 1994. It disappeared apparently in the 17th century following the introduction of predatory species to Mauritius.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3019266 cariei Reptile extinctions since 1500 Reptiles of Mauritius Extinct animals of Mauritius Taxa named by Robert Hoffstetter Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Reptiles described in 1946