Extinct Pterygoboa (Boidae, Erycinae) From the Latest Oligocene and Early Miocene of Florida

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2013

Description

Members of the Erycinae are small to medium-sized, semi-fossorial snakes in the family Boidae (Squamata, Serpentes) known today from Africa, southwestern Asia, India, and western North America. Erycines were the predominate snakes in faunas of North America during the Paleogene. In North America, only the minute, extinct erycine Pterygoboa is known to have additional wing-like processes situated on the postzygapophyses of the vertebrae. Here we report on Pterygoboa from one latest Oligocene (25-24 Ma) (White Springs) and two early Miocene (≈20-19 Ma) localities (Miller, Thomas Farm) in Florida. These specimens represent a significant chronological and southern geographic range extension for the genus and permit an amendment to the morphological description of this unusual snake.

Share

COinS