Messelopython freyi. Image credit: Senckenberg Research Institute.
The newly-identified python species lived in what is now Germany, approximately 47.6 million years ago (Eocene period).
Named
Messelopython freyi, the ancient snake is the earliest-known member of the superfamily Pythonoidea.
“The geographic origin of pythons is still not clear,” said co-author Dr. Krister Smith, a paleontologist in the Department of Messel Research and Mammalogy at the Senckenberg Research Institute and the Institute for Ecology, Diversity and Evolution at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
“According to our findings, these snakes already occurred in Europe at the time of the Eocene, over 47 million years ago,” said lead author Dr. Hussam Zaher, a paleontologist in the Museu de Zoologia at the Universidade de São Paulo.
Rare Iridescent Snake Discovered In Vietnam, Scales Shift Through Blues And Greens
KEY POINTS
A team of U.S. and Vietnamese scientists discovered a new species of odd-scaled burrowing snakes in northern Vietnam
The snake, named Achalinus zugorum, has dark and iridescent scales that shift through blues and greens in the light
The snake spends most of its life beneath the surface and lacks bright-light photoreceptors in its eyes
A rare iridescent snake with scales that shift from green to blue has been discovered in Vietnam.
A team of scientists from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology discovered the new species of snake last year while researching biodiversity in a heavily forested part of northern Vietnam.