Madtsoiidae

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Madtsoiidae
Temporal range:
Ma
Fossil specimen of
Madtsoia bai
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Clade: Ophidia
Family: †Madtsoiidae
Hoffstetter, 1961
Genera

Madtsoiidae is an extinct

Upper Cretaceous) to late Pleistocene strata located in South America, Africa, India, Australia and Southern Europe. Madtsoiidae include very primitive snakes, which like extant boas and pythons would likely dispatch their prey by constriction. Genera include some of the longest snakes known such as Vasuki, measuring at least 11–12 metres (36–39 ft) long, and the Australian Wonambi and Yurlunggur.[1] As a grouping of basal forms the composition and even the validity of Madtsoiidae is in a state of flux as new pertinent finds are described, with more recent evidence suggesting that it is paraphyletic as previously defined.[2]

Although madtsoiids persisted on Australia until the Pleistocene, they largely went extinct elsewhere during the Eocene. However, some species persisted in South America and India through the Oligocene.[3]

Description

Diagram of the fossil of Sanajeh

Madtsoiidae was first classified as a subfamily of

stem group outside Serpentes and within a more inclusive Ophidia
. Madtsoiid snakes ranged in size from less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) (estimated total length) to over 11 metres (36 ft), and are thought to have been constrictors analogous to modern pythons and boas, but with more primitive jaw structures less highly adapted for swallowing large prey. There are specific anatomical features that diagnose members of this family, such as the presence of hypapophyses only in anterior trunk, that the middle and posterior trunk vertebrae possess a moderately or well-developed haemal keel, except for a few near the cloacal region, often with short laterally paired projections on the posterior part of the keel. Also, all trunk and caudal vertebrae have at least a parazygantral foramen, sometimes several of them, located in a more or less distinct fossa that is lateral to each zygantral facet. Additional features are the prezygapophyseal processes' absence while the paracotylar foramina are present and that the diapophyses are relatively wide, exceeding width across prezygapophyses at least in the posterior trunk vertebrae.[1] (Scanlon 2005)

Like most fossil snakes the majority of madtsoiids are known only from isolated vertebrae, but several (Madtsoia bai, M. camposi, Wonambi naracoortensis, Nanowana spp., unnamed Yurlunggur spp., Najash rionegrina) have associated or articulated parts of skeletons. Of the genera listed below, all have been referred to Madtsoiidae in all recent classifications except Najash rionegrina, which is included here based on diagnostic vertebral characters described by Apesteguía and Zaher (2006). These authors didn't include Najash among madtsoiids because they consider that madtsoiids are a paraphyletic assemblage of basal macrostomatans related to Madtsoia bai and consequently, not related to the Cretaceous alethinophidians from southern continents.

Wonambi naracoortensis and Thylacoleo

Rieppel et al. (2002) classified

squamates
(i.e. the sacrum is present but has lost contact with the reduced ilia in other taxa). It would be unsurprising if other madtsoiids also possessed hindlimbs as complete as those of Najash.

Several madtsoiid genera have been named using indigenous words for legendary

Pitjantjatjara), Yurlunggur (Yolngu) and Nanowana (Ancient Greek nano-, 'dwarf' + Warlpiri Wana) in Australia, and Herensugea (Basque) in Europe. G.G. Simpson (1933) apparently started this trend by compounding Madtsoia from indigenous roots. In this particular case these originated from the Tehuelche language, although the reference made was geographic rather than mythological, the derivation being from that language's terms mad, "valley" and tsoi, "cow" as a rough translation from Spanish
name of the type locality, Cañadón Vaca.

A 2022 morphological study found Madtsoiidae to be paraphyletic, with Sanajeh being found to be the most basal member of the Ophidia, whereas the Cenozoic Australian madtsoiids were basal alethinophidians.[2]

Classification

Unnamed specimens

  • Madtsoiidae indet. (Rage, 1987; Paleogene, Paleocene; Morocco)
  • Madtsoiidae indet. (Werner and Rage, 1994, Rage and Werner 1999; Cretaceous, Cenomanian; Sudan)
  • ?Madtsoiid (Rage and Prasad, 1992; Cretaceous, Maastrichtian; India)
  • ?Madtsoiid (Rage, 1991; Paleogene, early Paleocene Santa Lucía Formation; Bolivia)
  • ?Madtsoiidae indet. cf. Madtsoia sp. (Scanlon, 2005; Paleogene, early Eocene; Australia)
  • Madtsoiidae indet. (Folie and Codrea, 2005; Cretaceous, Maastrichtian; Romania)
  • Madtsoiidae nov. (Gomez and Baez, 2006; Cretaceous, late Campanian or early Maastrichtian; Argentina)
  • Madtsoiidae indet. (Wazir et al., 2022; Late-Oligocene, India)[7]

Phylogeny

According to a cladistic analysis by Scanlon (2006), Wonambi and Yurlunggur as representative genera of Madtsoiidae form a

monophyletic
assembly. However, as Madtsoia is not included, its grouping in the same family is questionable.

unnamed

Pachyrhachis†

unnamed

Haasiophis†

unnamed
unnamed
unnamed

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 2045-2322
    .
  2. ^
    ISSN 0024-4082
    .
  3. S2CID 248636111
    .
  4. S2CID 129792355
    .
  5. PMID 20209142
    .
  6. ^
    doi:10.1080/02724630903409188.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  7. ^ Wasim Abass Wazir, Ramesh Kumar Sehgal, Andrej Čerňanský, Rajeev Patnaik, Navin Kumar, Abhishek Pratap Singh, Piyush Uniyal & Ningthoujam Premjit Singh (2022): A find from the Ladakh Himalaya reveals a survival of madtsoiid snakes (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) in India through the late Oligocene, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2021.2058401

Bibliography and further reading

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