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5 - Miocene Snakes of Eurasia

A Review of the Evolution of Snake Communities

from Part I - The Squamate and Snake Fossil Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2022

By
Martin Ivanov
Edited by
David J. Gower  and
Hussam Zaher
David J. Gower
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, London
Hussam Zaher
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo
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Summary

Eurasian Miocene snake taxa, localities, stratigraphy, palaeogeography, and palaeoenvironment are reviewed. Palaeogeographic evolution of Paratethys facilitated communication between European and Asiatic faunas since the early Oligocene, with at least two main routes from Asia or Africa into Europe. The early Burdigalian saw spreading of non-erycid Booidea and the first ‘Oriental vipers’ in Europe, which dispersed substantially within Eurasia during late Ottnangian warming. This warm climate, culminating as the Miocene Climatic Optimum, was associated with the middle Burdigalian first appearance of highly thermophilic Naja and Python in Europe. Python disappeared in Europe at the end of the Langhian due to rapid cooling, but Naja and ‘Oriental vipers’ persisted until the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, respectively. Communication among mid-latitude Asian and European assemblages occurred across the early–middle Miocene, but this Eurasian fauna was heterogeneous, at least since the middle Miocene. Miocene S and SE Asian snakes resemble those of today. Increasing end-Miocene aridity and Eurasia–Africa connection facilitated invasion into Eurasia of African and SW Asian taxa.

Keywords

fossilsevolutionsystematicspalaeoenvironmentpalaeogeographyextinctionstratigraphypalaeoclimateNeogeneCenozoic
Type
Chapter
Information
The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes , pp. 85 - 110
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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