A new evidence for pachyostotic snake from Turonian of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

The records of Cretaceous marine snakes from Bosnia-Herzegovina are known nearly a hundred years. This paper presents a new finding of pachyostotc snake from the local quarry Dubovac, three kilometers northwest of Bileca. The specimen consists of 29 vertebrae, seven of which are detached from the slab. The two best preserved vertebrae are almost square shaped resembling Simoliophis rochebrune but considerably smaller. Vertebrae and ribs are extremely pachyostotic as inPachyophis woodwordy. Because of the unknown morphology of 3-D vertebrae previous specimens from Bosnia-Hercegovina precise identification was not possible.