The snake that could gobble up a dinosaur
Source: Agencies |
March 3, 2010, Wednesday
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THE fossilized remains of a snake that lived 67 million years ago and which was found coiled around a dinosaur egg offer a rare incite into the ancient reptile's dining habits and provides some important clues to its evolution, scientists said yesterday.
The findings for the first time offer evidence that a 3.5-meter snake fed on the eggs and hatchlings of sauropods - making these reptiles one of the giant mammal's few predators.
It also offers evidence that snakes as early as 100 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period were developing mobile jaws that had some similarities to large-mouthed snakes such as today's vipers and boas.
"This is an early, well preserved snake and it is doing something. We are capturing it's behavior," said University of Michigan paleontologist Jeff Wilson, who is credited with discovering the snake bones amid the crushed dinosaur eggs and bones of hatchlings.
"We have information about what this early snake did for living," he said. "It also helps us understand the early evolution of snakes both anatomically and ecologically."
Dhananjay Mohabey of India's Geological Survey discovered the fossilized remains in 1987 in Gujarat but he was only able to recognize the dinosaur eggshells and limb bones. Wilson examined the fossils in 2001 and was "astonished" to find a predator in the midst of the sauropod's nest.
"I saw the characteristic vertebral locking mechanism of snakes alongside dinosaur eggshell and larger bones and I knew it was an extraordinary specimen," Wilson said.
Mohabey theorized that the snake was in the process of gobbling a hatchling when the entire nest was "frozen in time" when hit by a storm or some other disaster and buried under layers of sediment.
The findings for the first time offer evidence that a 3.5-meter snake fed on the eggs and hatchlings of sauropods - making these reptiles one of the giant mammal's few predators.
It also offers evidence that snakes as early as 100 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period were developing mobile jaws that had some similarities to large-mouthed snakes such as today's vipers and boas.
"This is an early, well preserved snake and it is doing something. We are capturing it's behavior," said University of Michigan paleontologist Jeff Wilson, who is credited with discovering the snake bones amid the crushed dinosaur eggs and bones of hatchlings.
"We have information about what this early snake did for living," he said. "It also helps us understand the early evolution of snakes both anatomically and ecologically."
Dhananjay Mohabey of India's Geological Survey discovered the fossilized remains in 1987 in Gujarat but he was only able to recognize the dinosaur eggshells and limb bones. Wilson examined the fossils in 2001 and was "astonished" to find a predator in the midst of the sauropod's nest.
"I saw the characteristic vertebral locking mechanism of snakes alongside dinosaur eggshell and larger bones and I knew it was an extraordinary specimen," Wilson said.
Mohabey theorized that the snake was in the process of gobbling a hatchling when the entire nest was "frozen in time" when hit by a storm or some other disaster and buried under layers of sediment.
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