Chubutophis

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Chubutophis
Temporal range: Eocene (Casamayoran)
~48  Ma
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Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Boidae
Genus:† Chubutophis
Albino, 1993
Type species
†Chubutophis grandis
Albino, 1993

Chubutophis is a genus of extinct boid snakes from the Eocene-aged Sarmiento Formation in Chubut Province, Argentina. [1] [2] It is known from a partial set of vertebrae suggesting a juvenile individual. The type species is C. grandis.

Contents

Size

According to Adriana Albino, the describing researcher:

Considering that this material is from a young specimen, its size is extraordinary and it is estimated that the adult would have reached greater dimensions than those observed in the largest snakes known up to the present, including Madtsoia and Gigantophis [2]

Ecology

The large size of Chubutophis was probably due to the more varied and abundant mammals of larger size providing their most frequent prey. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Chubutophis at Fossilworks.org
  2. 1 2 Albino, Adriana Maria. "Snakes from the Paleocene and Eocene of Patagonia (Argentina): paleoecology and coevolution with mammals." Historical Biology 7.1 (1993): 51-69.
  3. ↑ Adriana M. Albino (2011). "Evolution of Squamata Reptiles in Patagonia based on the fossil record". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 103 (2): 441–457. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01691.x.


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