// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Mesophis say? Sssso much.
| Mesophis Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | †Simoliophiidae |
| Genus: | †Mesophis Bolkay, 1925 |
| Species: | †M. nopcsai |
| Binomial name | |
| †Mesophis nopcsai Bolkay, 1925 | |
Mesophis is an extinct genus of snakes that lived during the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. Only a single specimen has been discovered, near Selišta in Bileća, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was described by S. J. Bolkay in 1925.[1] It was rediscovered by Jakov Radovcic and colleagues when the collections of the Sarajevo Natural History Museum were unpacked from their hiding place after the Balkan conflict of the 1990s.[2] Part of the specimens remains lost and is thought to be in a private collection.[2] The body is articulated in ventral view, making Mesophis one of the few Mesozoic snake fossils represented by anything more than isolated vertebrae. There is no skull on the specimen, and only a small number of tail vertebrae are preserved.[2] There are also no limbs preserved, and it is unclear whether the animal had limbs in life, as did some other members of the family Simoliophiidae.
References
[edit]- ↑ Bolkay, S. J. (1925). "Mesophis nopcsai n.g. n.sp. ein neues, schlangenähnliches Reptil aus der unteren Kreide (Neocom) von Bilek-Selišta (Ost-Hercegovina)". Glasnik zemaljskog Muzeja u Bosni i Hercegovini. 37: 125–135.
- 1 2 3 Caldwell, Michael W. (2021). The Origin of Snakes: Morphology and the Fossil Record. Boca Raton: CRC Press. p. 48. ISBN 9781032177694.