A giant viper from the Greek Pliocene


The type vertebra of Laophis crotaloides modified from
the original publication by Owen (1857). Image not to scale.
In 1857, British palaeontologist Richard Owen described Laophis crotaloides, a new species of viperid snake, on the basis of 13 large, fossilized vertebrae from Megalo Emvolon, near Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. According to Owen, the vertebrae belonged to a very large viperid with striking similarity to modern rattlesnakes of the genus Crotalus. Ever since, Laophis has been an enigma. Almost all subsequent authors neglected it or considering it problematic, possibly because it was estimated to reach three meters in length.

In a new paper Georgalis et al. (2016) report on a previously undescribed vertebra of a large snake from the area of the type locality of L. crotaloides in northern Greece. Although the vertebra is fragmentary, it shares with Laophis crotaloides an overall large size and clear viper features. The authors assigned the vertebrae to Laophis crotaloides. Unfortunately, the broken fossil precludes any precise conclusions about the taxonomic status of this fossil snake and the affinities of Laophis to the other members of the Viperidae. Nevertheless, this new material confirms the validity of the taxon and suggests certain vertebral characters featured in the original description by Owen (1857) were inaccurate. The maximum length of the condyle of the most recent specimen is 16.3 mm, the longest condyle reported for any European viperid. The vertebrae is from the Pliocene.

The mammal fauna of Megalo Emvolon is speciose and relatively well studied. It includes bovids, a suid, an equid, various rodents and lagomorphs, a canid, and a cercopithecid primate. A single species of bird is known from the site, a peafowl. Reptiles are represented by Laophis crotaloides (the only squamate) and numerous small and giant tortoises. The mammal fauna indicates the paleoenvironment of Laophis crotaloides was semi-arid.

Citation
Georgalis, G. L., Szyndlar, Z., Kear, B. P., & Delfino, M. (2016). New material of Laophis crotaloides, an enigmatic giant snake from Greece, with an overview of the largest fossil European vipers. Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 1-14.