Palaeophiidae Lydekker, 1888

Rage, Jean-Claude, Folie, Annelise, Rana, Rajendra S., Singh, Hukam, Rose, Kenneth D. & Smith, Thierry, 2008, A diverse snake fauna from the early Eocene of Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, India, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 53 (3), pp. 391-403 : 392-393

Family Palaeophiidae Lydekker, 1888 Genus Palaeophis Owen, 1841

Type species: Palaeophis toliapicus Owen, 1841 ; Ypresian , early Eocene, western Europe .

Remarks.— Palaeophis includes several species whose vertebrae are slightly to strongly compressed laterally. Two assemblages of species, or grades, may be distinguished ( Rage 1984; Rage et al. 2003). The primitive grade comprises species whose vertebrae are weakly compressed and that have low pterapophyses, whereas species of the advanced grade have vertebrae clearly compressed laterally and well−developed pterapophyses. However, this genus may be a paraphyletic assemblage including all palaeophiine species that do not belong to Pterosphenus .

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Latest Cretaceous of Africa; Paleocene of Africa and North America; early Eocene of Africa, North America, Europe, Central Asia and India; middle Eocene of Africa, North America, Europe and

Central Asia; late Eocene of North America and perhaps Central Asia ( Rage et al. 2003; Parmley and De Vore 2005).