Book contents
- The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes
- The Systematics Association Special Volume Series
- The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Squamate and Snake Fossil Record
- Part II Palaeontology and the Marine-Origin Hypothesis
- 6 Sea-Serpentism
- 7 Reassessing the Morphological Foundations of the Pythonomorph Hypothesis
- 8 A Review of Non-Mosasaurid (Dolichosaur and Aigialosaur) Mosasaurians and Their Relationships to Snakes
- 9 A Review of the Skull Anatomy and Phylogenetic Affinities of Marine Pachyophiid Snakes
- Part III Genomic Perspectives
- Part IV Neurobiological Perspectives
- Part V Anatomical and Functional Morphological Perspectives
- Index
- Series page
- References
6 - Sea-Serpentism
from Part II - Palaeontology and the Marine-Origin Hypothesis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2022
Book contents
- The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes
- The Systematics Association Special Volume Series
- The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Squamate and Snake Fossil Record
- Part II Palaeontology and the Marine-Origin Hypothesis
- 6 Sea-Serpentism
- 7 Reassessing the Morphological Foundations of the Pythonomorph Hypothesis
- 8 A Review of Non-Mosasaurid (Dolichosaur and Aigialosaur) Mosasaurians and Their Relationships to Snakes
- 9 A Review of the Skull Anatomy and Phylogenetic Affinities of Marine Pachyophiid Snakes
- Part III Genomic Perspectives
- Part IV Neurobiological Perspectives
- Part V Anatomical and Functional Morphological Perspectives
- Index
- Series page
- References
Summary
Sea-serpent sightings were popular subjects of nineteenth century fictional tales. One of the most famous sightings, the 1817 appearance in the harbor of Gloucester (Massachusetts), generated a report published by the Linnean Society of New England. In 1869, ED Cope introduced a new reptilian order, Pythonomorpha, comprising large Upper Cretaceous marine lizards (mosasaurs) that he thought rather well captured in historical depictions of sea-serpents. The name Pythonomorpha emphasized the many striking features that Cope found mosasaurs to share with snakes. Cope’s Pythonomorpha was resurrected in the late 1990s, as a clade including mosasaurs plus snakes. This was supported by the placement of mid-Cretaceous marine snakes with well-developed hindlimbs as evolutionarily intermediate between mosasauroids and snakes. Critics pointed to features indicating that those fossil snakes are instead evolutionarily advanced, which would imply that hindlimbs of these fossil snakes re-developed from rudiments such as occur in pythons. Recent molecular developmental studies confirmed that the embryonic limb bud of the python hindlimb conserves the genetic program to generate a complete limb.
Keywords
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- The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes , pp. 113 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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