Palaeophis maghrebianus Arambourg, 1952
Reptilia
Squamata
Serpentes
Palaeophiidae
Palaeophiinae
Early Eocene
Ypresian
Oulad Abdoun basin, Morocco
Length: ? 6-9 m
Palaeophis is a genus of marine snakes that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Eocene period. Some 13 species were described from North America, Europe, Russia and Africa. Only vertebrae and rib fragments have been found making it difficult to place them on the phylogenetic tree but they have been reported to be more closely related to the boas. Their size range from the small 1.5 meter long P. casei from the Early Eocene of Mississippi to the giant P. colossaeus from the Early Eocene of Mali which might have reached a total length of 9 m. The species P. maghrebianus from the Early Eocene of Morocco is a large one, for which extensive fragments of the vertebral column have been recovered, making it the best known of the genus. It apparently lived in a mangrove environment.
April 29, 2017
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