[5] The Scolecophidia infraorder is most-likely paraphyletic (with the family Anomalepididae recovered with strong support as sister clade to the 'typical snakes').

[11] The Malagasy typhlopoids (Madatyphlops in Typhlopidae and Xenotyphlops in Xenotyphlopidae) are among the only extant terrestrial vertebrates on Madagascar whose isolation occurred due to vicariance from the Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana.

[9][12] Anomalepididae Leptotyphlopidae †Boipeba Gerrhopilidae Xenotyphlopidae Typhlopidae The common name of Scolecophidia, blind snakes, is based on their shared characteristic of reduced eyes that are located under their head scales.

[14] These head scales are found in all snakes and are referred to as spectacles, but within this infraorder, they are opaque, resulting in decreased visual capabilities.

[3] The main shared characteristic found across all Scolecophidia is a fossorial nature, either living underground or within logs and leaf litter.

Some of their main food sources include ant or termite eggs, which are tracked down by following chemical cues left by these invertebrates to create trails.

The ancestral nature of the Scolecophidia has resulted in the use of these organisms as models for evolutionary studies in Serpentes to better understand evolution of reproduction, morphology, and feeding habits.