Snakes are familiar, distinctive—and often feared—reptiles. And they’ve been around for a long time: body fossils found in the UK, Portugal and the US stretch all the way back to the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.
Until now, though, there hasn’t been a single description of a surface fossilized snake trace—a mark on a surface that’s become cemented and re-exposed over time—anywhere in the world.
There are probably several reasons for this. One is that the tracks of large quadrupeds (four-legged animals), including dinosaurs, are easier to recognize than those of snakes. Another reason could be that snakes tend to avoid sandy or muddy areas in which their trails could be registered, preferring vegetated terrain. Maybe, as the weight of the snake is distributed over its entire length, the trails are shallow and are not easy to identify.
Or perhaps researchers are not adequately familiar with the types of traces that snakes can create.
We are part of an ichnological team—experts in identifying fossil tracks and traces. In a recently published article in the journal Ichnos, we described the first snake trace in the fossil record, which we found on South Africa’s Cape south coast. It dates to the Pleistocene epoch, and our studies have shown that it was probably made between 93,000 and 83,000 years ago, almost certainly by a puff adder (Bitis arietans).
2023-10-06 23:48:03
Link from phys.org