Eoconstrictor fischeri: A Booid Snake from the Middle Eocene Messel Shale of Germany.
[sciencythoughts.blogspot.com]
Snakes of the clade Boidae (Boas, Anacondas, Emerald Boas) are arguably among the most charismatic species of living Reptiles. They are one of the first oshoots of that part of the Snake tree that capture and ingest prey much larger than their own head through an arsenal of anatomical and behavioural features including constriction, macrostomy (the ability to greatly enlarge the mouth by dislocating the jaw), and infrared detection as an integral part of their visual system. Boid snakes, currently distributed in the Neotropics, are part of the larger clade Booidea (Neotropical Boas, 'Erycines', Malagasy Boas, Ungaliophiines and Pacific Island Boas), which has fuelled much debate as to how a Reptile group of such low apparent vagility came to be distributed across all current continents except Antarctica. Up to now, the fragmentary and questionable fossil record of Booid Snakes provides little insight into their early evolution and ecology.
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Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
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