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Science 17 March 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5460, pp. 2010 - 2012
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5460.2010
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Reports

A Fossil Snake with Limbs

Eitan Tchernov, 1 Olivier Rieppel, 2* Hussam Zaher, 3 Michael J. Polcyn, 4 Louis L. Jacobs 4

A 95-million-year-old fossil snake from the Middle East documents the most extreme hindlimb development of any known member of that group, as it preserves the tibia, fibula, tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges. It is more complete than Pachyrhachis, a second fossil snake with hindlimbs that was recently portrayed to be basal to all other snakes. Phylogenetic analysis of the relationships of the new taxon, as well as reanalysis of Pachyrhachis, shows both to be related to macrostomatans, a group that includes relatively advanced snakes such as pythons, boas, and colubroids to the exclusion of more primitive snakes such as blindsnakes and pipesnakes.

1 Department of Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Berman-Lubin Buildings, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
2 Department of Geology, Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA.
3 Instituto de Biociencias, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Rua do Matao, Travessa 14, Cidade Universitaria, 05508-900 Sao Paulo SP, Brazil.
4 Shuler Museum of Paleontology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rieppel{at}fmnh.org

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