NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Northern Short-headed Snake
Oligodon ancorus (Girard, 1858)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Northern Short-headed Snake (Oligodon ancorus) in the Philippines
Pauline Carmel Joy Eje · CC BY 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Oligodon ancorus, commonly known as the northern short-headed snake, is a species of colubrid snake found on the islands of Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines, as well as the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. However, whether the populations from Sumatra, described as Oligodon rhombifer, belong to this species has been contested.
Wikipedia contributors, Oligodon ancorus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:58:29.618243+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Oligodon ancorus (Girard, 1858)
- Name authority
- (Girard, 1858)
- Common name
- Northern Short-headed Snake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Colubridae
- Genus
- Oligodon
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
- infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
- familyColubridae
- subfamilyColubrinae
- genusOligodon
- speciesOligodon ancorus (Girard, 1858)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Oligodon. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Ringed Kukri SnakeOligodon annulifer (Boulenger, 1893) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Barron's Kukri SnakeOligodon barroni (Smith, 1916) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Oligodon booliati Leong & Grismer, 2004 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Shorthead Kukri SnakeOligodon brevicauda Günther, 1862 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Assam Kukri SnakeOligodon catenatus (Blyth, 1855) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cantor's Kukri SnakeOligodon cyclurus (Cantor, 1839) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eberhardt’s Kukri SnakeOligodon eberhardti Pellegrin, 1910 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Nagarkot Kukri SnakeOligodon erythrogaster Boulenger, 1907 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Namsang Kukri SnakeOligodon erythrorhachis Wall, 1910 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hampton's Kukri SnakeOligodon hamptoni Boulenger, 1918 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Inornate Kukri SnakeOligodon inornatus (Boulenger, 1914) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Oligodon jintakunei Pauwels, Wallach, David & Chanhome, 2002 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Simotes aphanospilus Cope, 1860 Cope, 1860 | synonym |
| Holarchus burksi Taylor, 1918 Taylor, 1918 | synonym |
| Holarchus phaenochalinus Griffin, 1911 Griffin, 1911 | synonym |
| Oligodon rhombifer Werner, 1924 Werner, 1924 | synonym |
| Simotes phaenochalinus Cope, 1860 Cope, 1860 | synonym |
| Xenodon ancorus Girard, 1858 Girard, 1858 | synonym |
| Rhynchocalamus phaenochalinus | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Oligodon&species=ancorus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:495Z6. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.