Texasophis meini Rage & Holman, 1984

Rage, Jean-Claude & Bailon, Salvador, 2005, Amphibians and squamate reptiles from the late early Miocene (MN 4) of Béon 1 (Montréal-du-Gers, southwestern France), Geodiversitas 27 (3), pp. 413-441 : 429

Texasophis meini Rage & Holman, 1984

undescribed species of Texasophis – Holman 1984: 225, fig. 2.

Texasophis meini Rage & Holman, 1984: 91-93 , fig. 2. — Szyndlar 1987: 63, 65; 1991a: 112. — Augé & Rage 2000: 300.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 16 trunk vertebrae (Béon 2004 LT 62, 63; Béon 98 F1 3076).

COMMENTS

The most typical feature of this species is its well limited, oblong to oblanceolate (sensu Auffenberg 1963) haemal keel, whose ventral surface is flat. In the type locality, La Grive M, the width of the haemal keel shows variation; the holotype has one of the widest keel. Most vertebrae from Béon 1 have wide haemal keels, some being wider than that of the holotype, whereas at Sansan they are generally narrower. However, the specimens from Béon 1 fall within the limits of the intraspecific variation.

T. meini is known from France (MN 6 and MN 7+8) ( Rage & Holman 1984; Augé & Rage 2000; Ivanov 2002), Germany (MN 5; Szyndlar pers. comm.), Hungary (MN 6 or 7+8) ( Gál et al. 1999), and Ukraine (MN 9; Szyndlar 1991a and pers. comm.). In Central Europe the genus is represented by T. bohemiacus that extends from the early Oligocene (MP 22) in Germany to the late early Miocene (MN 4) in the Czech Republic ( Szyndlar 1987). This species is clearly d i s t i n g u i s h e d f r o m T. m e i n i b y i t s n a r r o w haemal keel. Vieux-Collonges (MN 4/5) also yielded Texasophis but although the locality is stratigraphically intermediate between Béon 1 and Sansan, the species is perhaps not T. meini . It was referred to as Texasophis sp. (Ivanov 2000) .