Taxa
Atractaspididae
Family
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Atractaspididae is a family of venomous snakes commonly called mole vipers, stiletto snakes or burrowing asps, found only in Africa and the Middle East. The family holds roughly a dozen genera with species counts ranging from one to about fifteen per genus. It is taxonomically unusual in including fangless, rear fanged, fixed fanged and hinge fanged species within one family. Some members can stab sideways with a single fang even while the mouth stays closed, a trait that makes ordinary snake handling holds unsafe with this group.
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