Messelophis variatus, BASZIO, 2004

Scanferla, Agustín, Smith, Krister T. & Schaal, Stephan F. K., 2016, Revision of the cranial anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of the Eocene minute boas Messelophis variatus and Messelophis ermannorum (Serpentes, Booidea), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176 (1), pp. 182-206 : 203

MESSELOPHIS VARIATUS BASZIO, 2004

Holotype

SMF ME 1828 a+b, an articulated, almost complete skeleton, and SMF ME 1828 c, four isolated vertebrae extracted from the same specimen.

Locality and horizon

Middle Messel Formation, Messel Pit near Darmstadt ( Germany), middle Eocene ( MP 11).

Emended diagnosis

A minute booid snake that can be distinguished from all other members of Serpentes by the following combination of characters: dentate premaxilla with ascending process; lacrimal duct opens ventrally; large finger-like medial foot process; postorbital is applied to parietal and frontal; parietal with parietal table and a pointed posterior process in sagittal crest; maxilla with one large maxillary foramen, and teeth dimin- ishing in size posteriorly; ectopterygoid with forked maxillary process; parietal table present; supraorbital process of parietal well developed; supratemporal short, with a conspicuous lip in its contact region with the quadrate; anterior dorsal and ventral processes of prootic weakly developed (i.e. anterior trigeminal foramen anteriorly delimited by parietal); laterosphenoid present; ∼ 300 precloacal and 68–80 cloacal–postcloacal vertebrae; neural spine of precloacal vertebrae pointlike, shifted to the posteriormost part of the neural arch; prezygapophyseal process weakly developed; paracotylar foramina absent; haemal keel absent throughout the vertebral column; and paired laminar haemapophyses in postcloacal vertebrae present.