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21 January 2013 The oldest Brazilian Snakes from the Cenomanian (Early Late Cretaceous)
Annie S. Hsiou, Adriana M. Albino, Manuel A. Medeiros, Ronny A.B. Santos
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Abstract

South American Mesozoic snake diversity is mostly represented by genera from the Cenomanian (Najash), Santonian— Campanian (Dinilysia), and Campanian—Maastrichtian (Alamitophis, Patagoniophis, Rionegrophis, and Australophis) of Patagonia, Argentina. In this paper, we describe a new snake genus and species, Seismophis septentrionalis, from the Cenomanian (early Late Cretaceous) of the Alcântara Formation, Maranhão, northeastern Brazil. The new snake comprises a posteriormost trunk vertebra and possibly a poorly preserved midtrunk vertebra. Both vertebrae share small size, zygosphene moderately thick with a rectilinear roof, absence of paracotylar foramina, presence of parazygantral foramina, and strongly marked parasagittal ridges of the neural arch. The new snake is here considered of uncertain systematic affinities, but probably close to the limbed snake Najash rionegrina. Although the material is very fragmentary and the systematic assignment is still unresolved, this snake represents the oldest, as well as probably the most primitive snake from Brazil.

Copyright © 2014 A.S. Hsiou et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Annie S. Hsiou, Adriana M. Albino, Manuel A. Medeiros, and Ronny A.B. Santos "The oldest Brazilian Snakes from the Cenomanian (Early Late Cretaceous)," Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59(3), 635-642, (21 January 2013). https://doi.org/10.4202/app.2012.0091
Received: 21 August 2012; Accepted: 4 January 2013; Published: 21 January 2013
KEYWORDS
Alcântara Formation
Brazil
Cretaceous
Ophidia
Reptilia
snakes
Squamata
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