c.95 million years ago, Ein Yabrub, Israel.
Pachyrhachis problematicus is one of the oldest known snakes.
It was a metre long seafaring reptile that, unlike its modern cousins, had
small but fully formed hind-limbs. It has been proposed that the primitive
anatomy of
Pachyrhachis forms a link between snakes and mosasaurs.
However, recent studies of this and another legged Israeli fossil snake called
Haasiophis seem to refute this, suggesting that these creatures
were more derived than initially thought and are not close to the ancestry
of all snakes.
This image originally appeared in
Nature Australia, Summer 2001-2002
(Australian Museum)
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Art and text © Brian Choo 2004
