A time relic: a new species of dwarf boa, Tropidophis Bibron, 1840 (Serpentes: Amerophidia), from the Upper Amazon Basin Author Ortega-Andrade, H. Mauricio 9AF4E675-6998-4081-8B7F-C63A93850942 Biogeography and Spatial Ecology Research Group, Life Sciences Faculty, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Tena, Napo, Ecuador. & Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INABIO, Quito, Ecuador. mauricio.ortega@ikiam.edu.ec Author Bentley, Alexander EFCB5564-7F44-482A-A7F7-65D83202D5D2 Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INABIO, Quito, Ecuador. & Sumak Kawsay In Situ, Vía Río Anzu km 14, Mera, Pastaza, Ecuador. & Waska Amazonía, Vía Río Anzu ciudadela ecológico Waska, Mera, Pastaza, Ecuador. agbentley77@gmail.com Author Koch, Claudia E4A1F57D-3699-47B1-B45D-2D76E31DBB7D Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change / ZFMK, Museum Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany. c.koch@leibniz-lib.de Author Yánez-Muñoz, Mario H. D62EB482-81F7-435A-837C-AD57D6C0B422 Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INABIO, Quito, Ecuador. mario.ianez@biodiversidad.gob.ec Author Entiauspe-Neto, Omar M. C34B5FB1-0CAB-4AEC-9253-7CBDDCCEE9D9 Laboratório de Coleções Zoológicas, Instituto Butantan, 05503 - 90, Av. Vital Brazil, 1500, Butantã, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. & Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto de Biociências, Departamento de Zoologia, Avenida Bento Gonçalves, 91501 - 970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. omarentiauspe@hotmail.com text European Journal of Taxonomy 2022 2022-12-29 854 1 1 107 http://dx.doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2022.854.2021 journal article 222435 10.5852/ejt.2022.854.2021 9333695a-96ff-4ffe-a639-b75433682bee 2118-9773 7501327 8EA03380-77C9-4DA8-9A4E-9005D19D91E4

Table 1. Osteological comparisons among selected species of Tropidophis Bibron, 1840 and Trachyboa boulengeri Peracca, 1910. Diagnostic characters of Tropidophis cacuangoae sp. nov. are highlighted in bold. Species with confirmed records from the Andes mountain range are indicated with a dagger (†).

	Tro. cacuangoae	Tro.	Tro. melanurus	Tra. boulengeri	Tro. battersbyi
	sp. nov. † (n = 2);	taczanowskyi †	(n = 1)	(n = 1)	(n= 1); holotype
	holotype,	(n = 1); lectotype
paratype
Maxillary teeth	18–21	21–22	17–18	17	13–14
Palatine teeth	7–9	7–8	7	7	7
Pterygoid teeth	11–13	13–14	14	20	10–11
Dentary teeth	22–25	22–23	19	25–27	18–20
Coronoid	present	present	present	absent	absent
Prefrontal-Maxilla	present	absent	present	present	present
contact
Lateral borders of	convex	convex	concave	concave	slightly convex
frontals in dorsal view
Distance of parietal	distinctly	distinctly	very close	very close	moderately
ridges in posterior	separated	separated			separated
region of parietal
Suture of parietal and	slightly curved	slightly curved	V-shaped	strongly curved	moderately
supraoccipital					curved
Suture of supraoccipital	broadly V-shaped	V-shaped	almost straight	broadly V-shaped	V-shaped
and exoccipitals
Lateral ridges of	parallel in anterior	parallel in anterior	parallel in anterior	meet in anterior	parallel in anterior
supraoccipital	region, diverging	region, diverging	region, diverging	region with	region, diverging
	posteriorly,	posteriorly,	posteriorly, very	medial ridge and	posteriorly,
	moderately pro-	moderately pro-	pronounced	directly diverging	moderately pro-
	nounced	nounced		posteriorly, very	nounced
				pronounced
Medial ridge of	short (⅓ to ½ of	short (about ½	absent	as long as	short (about ½
supraoccipital	supraoccipital	of supraoccipital		supraoccipital,	of supraoccipital
	length), weakly	length), weakly		very pronounced	length), weakly
	pronounced	pronounced			pronounced
Medial contact of	loose	firm	firm	firm	firm
exoccipitals
Dorsal ridges of	moderately	moderately	long, very	short, very	moderately
exoccipitals	pronounced	pronounced	pronounced	pronounced	pronounced
Elongate, perpendicular	present	absent	absent	absent	present only on
groove at					prootic
Basisphenoid-Prootic
suture
Level of caudal	at posterior	at posterior	at anterior margin	at anterior margin	distinctly anterior
termination of maxilla	margin of	margin of	of postorbital	of postorbital	to anterior margin
	postorbital	postorbital			of postorbital
Level of caudal	shortly before	at posterior end of	distinctly	distinctly	shortly behind
termination of	posterior end of	exoccipital	posterior to	posterior to	posterior end of
pterygoid	exoccipital		posterior end of	posterior end of	exoccipital
			exoccipital	exoccipital
Dentary-Angular	absent	present	present	present	present
contact
Splenial-Compound	present	present	absent	absent	absent
Bone contact