Uropeltis ceylanica (Cuvier 1829) extant, was considered closely related to the boas. The problem with Wilcox et al. (2002) and Vidal and Hedges (2002) is they placed the most derived burrowing snakes, Anomochilus and Leptotyphlops, at the basal node with no legged taxa, such as Heloderma, included. Here Uropeltis is derived from a sister to Cylindrophis and phylogenetically preceded Anomochilus and Leptotyphlops.

Distinct from Cylindrophis, the skull of Uropeltis had a larger naris and a premaxilla that hung over the maxilla, which were straighter. There were fewer teeth. The frontal and parietal are narrower. Palatal teeth are absent. The dentary is reduced and connected to the posterior elements by a simple hinge. The coronoid process is also reduced.

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Cuvier GCLD 1829. Le Règne Animal distribué d'apres son organisation, pour servir de base a l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction a l'anatomie comparée. Avec figures dessinées d'après nature. Nouvelle édition, revue et augmentée. Tome V. Suite et fin des Insectes. Par M. Latreille. Déterville & Crochard, Paris, i-xxiv + 556pp.

Rieppel O and Zaher H 2002. The skull of the Uropeltinae (Reptilia, Serpentes), with special reference to the otico-occipital region. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Zoological Series 68: 123–130.

Vidal N and Hedges SB 2002. Higher-level relationships of snakes inferred from four nuclear and mitochondrial genes. C. R. Biologies 325 (2002) 977–985.

Wilcox TP, Zwickl DJ, Heath TA and Hillis DM 2002. Phylogenetic relationships of the dwarf boas and a comparison of Bayesian and bootstrap measures of phylogenetic support. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 25 (2002) 361–371. online pdf

wiki/Uropeltis