Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 41(1) 1998

Issue:

VOL 41(1) 1998

Keywords:

Fossil snakes, Upper Eocene, Boidae, England

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A new genus of snake (Serpentes: Boidae) from the Upper Eocene of Hordle Cliff, Hampshire, England

• J.A. HOLMAN
• David L. HARRISON

Abstract:

A new genus and species of boid snake, Paraplatyspondylia batesi gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Rodent and Mammal Beds of the Totland Bay Member, MP17 (Headon Hill Formation) of Hordle Cliff, Hampshire (Upper Eocene), England. The new genus appears to be related to the genus Platyspondylia RAGE, 1974 from the Upper Eo­cene and Oligocene of the Phosphorites of Quercy, France. Paraplatyspondylia shares the flattened vertebral neural arch condition as well as several other trenchant characters with Platyspondylia. But Paraplatyspondylia differs from Platyspondylia lepta RAGE, 1974 in having a lower and longer neural spine that extends onto the base of the zygosphene, and from P. lepta and P. sudrei RAGE, 1988 in the more anteriorly constricted neural spine, the truncated free edges of the prezygapophyses, and the deep cavities on either side of the cotyle.