Python europaeus is an extinct python species. It lived during the early/middle miocene. The holotype is a single trunk vertebra found in France.[1]
| Python europaeus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Pythonidae |
| Genus: | Python |
| Species: | †P. europaeus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Python europaeus Szyndlar & Rage, 2003
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Discovery and naming
editFossilized remains of Python europaeus were first reported in 1958 by French herpetologist Robert Hoffstetter, decades before the species was named, who published that python fossils had been found in the localities of Pontlevoy, La Grive-Saint-Alban and Mont Ceindre (now known as Vieux Collonges) in France.[2] The material from Vieux Collonges would be mentioned in later works published in during the 1970s and 1980s, which refer to the material as an unnamed species of Python.[3][4][5][6] In 2001, the Vieux Collonges material, consisting of over 300 vertebrae and a palatine bone, was illustrated and redescribed in detail by Martin Ivanov, though he believed the incompleteness of the skull made it impossible to identify this material to the species level, and identified it only as a member of the genus Python.[7]
In 2003, a study reanalysed the python fossils first reported by Hoffstetter and determined that they represent a new species, distinguished from others by its lower neural spines. This species was given the name Python europaeus, the specific name referring to Europe, the continent from which its remains originate. A single trunk vertebra from Vieux Collonges (MNHN, VCO 29) was designated as the holotype specimen of this species, with an additional 379 vertebrae and one palatine bone being referred to it. The referred material originates from Vieux Collonges and La Grive-Saint-Alban, however no python remains could be traced from Pontlevoy, leading the authors to suggest that the supposed python fossils from Pontlevoy reported by Hoffstetter are actually remains of Botrophis gaudryi.[8]
References
edit- ^ Schleip W.; O'Shea M. (2010). "Annotated checklist of the recent and extinct pythons (Serpentes, Pythonidae), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution". ZooKeys (66): 29–79. doi:10.3897/zookeys.66.683. PMC 3088416. PMID 21594030.
- ^ Hoffstetter, Robert (1958). "Les Squamates (Sauriens et Serpents) du Miocène français". Compte Rendu du 83 Congres des Societes savantes de Paris et des Départements: 195–200.
- ^ R, Hoffstetter; J-C, Rage (1972). "Les Erycinae fossiles de france (Serpentes, Boidae) comprehension et histoire de la sous-famille". Annales de Paléontologie (Vertébrés). 58 (1): 81–129.
- ^ Thomas, H.; Sen, S.; Khan, M.; Battail, B.; Ligabue, G. (1982). "The Lower Miocene Fauna of Al-Sarrar (Eastern province, Saudi Arabia)". Atlal (Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology). 5: 109–136.
- ^ Demarcq, Gerard; Ballesio, Rolland; Rage, Jean-Claude; Guerin, Claude; Mein, Pierre; Meon, Henriette (1983-07-01). "Donnees paleoclimatiques du neogene de la Vallee du Rhone (France)". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 42 (3): 247–272. doi:10.1016/0031-0182(83)90025-1. ISSN 0031-0182.
- ^ Seigel, Richard A.; Collins, Joseph T.; Novak, Susan S., eds. (1987). "Fossil history". Snakes: ecology and evolutionary biology. Caldwell, N.J: Blackburn Press. pp. 51–76. ISBN 978-1-930665-15-6.
- ^ Ivanov, Martin (2000). "Snakes of the lower/middle Miocene transition at Vieux Collonges (Rhône, France), with comments on the colonisation of western Europe by colubroids". Geodiversitas. 22 (4): 559–588. S2CID 126907224.
- ^ Szyndler, Zbigniew; Rage, Jean-Claude (2003). "Non-Erycine Booidea from the Oligocene and Miocene of Europe". Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Cracow: 1–109.
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