NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
African Shovel-nosed Snake
Scaphiophis albopunctatus Peters, 1870
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.
Snake Park, Watamu, KENYA Scanned Slide from 2002
Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Scaphiophis albopunctatus, the African shovel-nosed snake, is a non-venomous species of snake in the family Colubridae.
This snake is found across Central and Western Africa, and some areas of Eastern and Southern Africa, including in Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia
A mainly fossorial snake, its preferred habitats are dry savanna to open forest savanna, miombo woodland, moist grassland, moist woodland to primary lowland rainforest, and deciduous bushlands and thickets, where it feeds primarily on rodents; at times, it will repurpose or take over the burrows inhabited by its prey, such as those of ground squirrels.
Wikipedia contributors, Scaphiophis albopunctatus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:32:53.567029+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Scaphiophis albopunctatus Peters, 1870
- Name authority
- Peters, 1870
- Common name
- African Shovel-nosed Snake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Colubridae
- Genus
- Scaphiophis
- 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
- genusScaphiophis
- speciesScaphiophis albopunctatus Peters, 1870
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Scaphiophis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Ethiopian hook-nosed snakeScaphiophis raffreyi Bocourt, 1875 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Scaphiophis albopunctatus var. nigropunctatus Mocquard, 1887 Mocquard, 1887 | 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=Scaphiophis&species=albopunctatus 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:6XTK5. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.