Falseryx Szyndlar & Rage 2003

Falseryx Szyndlar & Rage, 2003 Falseryx Szyndlar & Rage, 2003: 59. REMARKS The genus Falseryx Szyndlar & Rage, 2003, was originally established as a member of Boinae Gray, 1825 or Tropidophiinae Brongersma, 1951 (Szyndlar & Rage 2003), ‘Tropidophiidae’ (Szyndlar et al. 2008), Tropidophiidae Brongersma, 1951 (Ivanov 2022), and finally classified as Alethinophidia incertae sedis (Smith & Georgalis 2022). The uncertainties regarding the phylogenetic position of Falseryx stem primarily from the fact that it is known exclusively from vertebrae. There is a single published vertebral synapomorphy of tropidophiids: the presence of an anteroventral straight corner of the hypapophyses of trunk vertebrae (Smith & Georgalis 2022; Szyndlar & Georgalis 2023; Zaher et al. 2024); notably, this feature is absent in Falseryx, which has a haemal keel instead of a hypapophysis in its mid- and posterior trunk vertebrae, hinting further that this genus does not belong to tropidophiids.