31-467: Madtsoiidae is an extinct family of mostly Gondwanan snakes with a fossil record extending from early Cenomanian ( Upper Cretaceous ) to late Pleistocene strata located in South America , Africa , India , Australia and Southern Europe . Madtsoiidae include very primitive snakes, which like extant boas and pythons would likely dispatch their prey by constriction . Genera include some of
62-447: A full medium sized skull of D. patagonica which also has the posterior brain, the vessels, the cranial nerves, the inner ear, as well as the semicircular canals of the skull structure: which have all been naturally endocranially cast, which has been recorded as the first natural endocranial casting of an extinct snake species. The information that has been studied and presented from this fossil has brought light to new information regarding
93-1021: A huge and well-defined trochanter. The sacro iliac contact is perhaps misleadingly described by Apesteguía and Zaher as unique possession of a sacrum , whereas it has rarely been questioned that the cloacal vertebrae in snakes are homologous to the sacrals of limbed squamates (i.e. the sacrum is present but has lost contact with the reduced ilia in other taxa). It would be unsurprising if other madtsoiids also possessed hindlimbs as complete as those of Najash . Several madtsoiid genera have been named using indigenous words for legendary Rainbow Serpents or dragons , including Wonambi ( Pitjantjatjara ), Yurlunggur ( Yolngu ) and Nanowana ( Ancient Greek nano -, 'dwarf' + Warlpiri Wana ) in Australia, and Herensugea ( Basque ) in Europe. G.G. Simpson (1933) apparently started this trend by compounding Madtsoia from indigenous roots. In this particular case these originated from
124-554: A lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching a consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called
155-565: A likely clade within Serpentes , or possible paraphyletic stem group outside Serpentes and within a more inclusive Ophidia . Madtsoiid snakes ranged in size from less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) (estimated total length) to over 11 metres (36 ft), and are thought to have been constrictors analogous to modern pythons and boas , but with more primitive jaw structures less highly adapted for swallowing large prey. There are specific anatomical features that diagnose members of this family, such as
186-544: A sister group of all living alethinophidia. Therefore this Cretaceous snake still contributes a significant amount within the debate on the origin of snakes and phylogeny. In terms of the locality and age of the Dinilysia the fossils can typically be found in abundance in sandstone sediments favored to the Anacleto formation. Additionally, the overall morphological similarities between that of D. patagonica has been used to determine
217-537: A species especially sensitive to low-frequency ground vibrations rather than airborne frequencies. The surmounting evidence displays that Dinilysia patagonica was more than likely a terrestrial burrower from the Cretaceous era. This discovery also extends its evidence to the fact that a burrowing habit predates the lineages of modern snakes. These ancestral snakes detected predators and captured prey specifically using low-frequency ground vibrations. Dinilysia patagonica
248-460: A stem snake that is very closely related to the original ancestor of the clade of crown snakes. Once the fossil of the snake was discovered, an x-ray computed tomography was used to build a digitized endocast of its inner ear. The results displayed that the Dinilysia patagonica 's inner ear anatomy had three main parts. It had a large spherical vestibule, large foramen ovale, and slender semicircular canals in its inner ear. Especially significantly,
279-515: Is an extinct genus of snake from the Late Cretaceous ( Coniacian ) of South America . Dinilysia was a relatively large ambush predator, measuring approximately 2 m (6.6 ft) long. The skull morphology of Dinilysia is similar to boids , suggesting that it was able to consume large prey. Living in a desert -like environment, Dinilysia is likely a terrestrial or a semi- fossorial animal. The Dinilysia patagonica is
310-499: Is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family— or whether a described family should be acknowledged— is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to
341-569: Is lateral to each zygantral facet. Additional features are the prezygapophyseal processes' absence while the paracotylar foramina are present and that the diapophyses are relatively wide, exceeding width across prezygapophyses at least in the posterior trunk vertebrae. (Scanlon 2005) Like most fossil snakes the majority of madtsoiids are known only from isolated vertebrae , but several ( Madtsoia bai , M. camposi , Wonambi naracoortensis , Nanowana spp., unnamed Yurlunggur spp., Najash rionegrina ) have associated or articulated parts of skeletons. Of
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#1732843932175372-575: Is one of the best known Cretaceous, terrestrial-snakes, native to the Late Cretaceous Anacleto Formation of Neuquen province, Argentina. The Dinilysia specimen has twenty-four mid-posterior trunk vertebrates. Dinilysia is referred to as such due to a variety of morphological features. The degree of knowledge represents the most valuable records of snakes from the Upper Cretaceous of Gondwana. Recently, Dinilysia has been labeled
403-480: Is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae , but that family
434-590: Is quite possible because of the structure similarities between the inner ear of the Dinilysia and similar burrowing squamate snakes. Based on both the evolutionary and morphological features and similarities that D. patagonica possess , evidence can be drawn from the features in order to predict the general location of origin. Furthermore, the anatomy of fossilized skull fragments of D. patagonica suggests that there are numerous plesiomorphic and apomorphic characters in comparison to respective extinct snakes, and present day snakes as well. These can be loosely attributed to
465-462: The Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Dinilysia Dinilysia (meaning "terrible ilysia ")
496-510: The Tehuelche language , although the reference made was geographic rather than mythological, the derivation being from that language's terms mad , "valley" and tsoi , "cow" as a rough translation from Spanish name of the type locality, Cañadón Vaca. A 2022 morphological study found Madtsoiidae to be paraphyletic , with Sanajeh being found to be the most basal member of the Ophidia , whereas
527-583: The Cenozoic Australian madtsoiids were basal alethinophidians . According to a cladistic analysis by Scanlon (2006), Wonambi and Yurlunggur as representative genera of Madtsoiidae form a monophyletic assembly. However, as Madtsoia is not included, its grouping in the same family is questionable. Pachyrhachis † Haasiophis † Wonambi † Yurlunggur † Dinilysia † Scolecophidia Alethinophidia Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae )
558-581: The Cretaceous alethinophidians from southern continents. Rieppel et al. (2002) classified Wonambi naracoortensis within the extant radiation ( crown group ) of snakes as Macrostomata incertae sedis , but many of their character state attributions for this species have been criticised or refuted by Scanlon (2005) and the better-preserved skulls of Yurlunggur sp./spp. have numerous characters apparently more plesiomorphic than any macrostomatans (Scanlon, 2006). The partial skull attributed to Najash rionegrina (Apesteguía and Zaher 2006) resembles that of
589-722: The Pleistocene, they largely went extinct elsewhere during the Eocene . However, some species persisted in South America and India through the Oligocene . Madtsoiidae was first classified as a subfamily of Boidae , Madtsoiinae, in Hoffstetter (1961). Further study and new finds allowed ranking the group as a distinct family in Linnaean systems . With the recent use of cladistics to unravel phylogeny , various analyses have posited Madtsoiidae as
620-424: The adaptive morphological characteristics present in the effects of terrestrial adaptation, in comparison to that of aquatic adaptation which would result in many more water adaptive features, especially in that of the skull and the spine as to ensure water to be a livable environment for the D. patagonica . There are numerous resources for evidence of the morphological characteristics of D. patagonica , including
651-530: The family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and
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#1732843932175682-430: The genera listed below, all have been referred to Madtsoiidae in all recent classifications except Najash rionegrina , which is included here based on diagnostic vertebral characters described by Apesteguía and Zaher (2006). These authors didn't include Najash among madtsoiids because they consider that madtsoiids are a paraphyletic assemblage of basal macrostomatans related to Madtsoia bai and consequently, not related to
713-489: The longest snakes known such as Vasuki , measuring at least 11–15 metres (36–49 ft) long, and the Australian Wonambi and Yurlunggur . As a grouping of basal forms the composition and even the validity of Madtsoiidae is in a state of flux as new pertinent finds are described, with more recent evidence suggesting that it is paraphyletic as previously defined. Although madtsoiids persisted on Australia until
744-514: The morphological importance of different characteristics within the semicircular canals, as well as the functionality of the olfactory bulb. Through the study of the lightly differentiated castings of the portions of the brain, it was assumed that D. patagonica was a terrestrial reptile due to the level of development of the olfactory sensory bulb within the cast brain. Therefore, if it had to be deduced whether snakes, and more specifically, Dinilysia patagonica adapted terrestrially or aquatically,
775-416: The non-madtsoiid Dinilysia patagonica , and vertebrae support that they are related. The type material of Najash is the only possible madtsoiid specimen retaining evidence of pelvic and hindlimb elements, which are claimed to be more plesiomorphic than other Cretaceous limbed snakes, such as Pachyrhachis , Haasiophis or Eupodophis , in retaining a sacro-iliac contact and well-developed limbs, with
806-586: The phylogeny and possible relations of the characteristics which other more present snakes may share. The articulate snake vertebrate fossils were found and studied in terms of the trunks and vertebral morphological variation has allowed for the deduction of that UNC-CIP 1 can be identified in the Dinilysia genus. Additionally, the ongoing debate of whether snakes evolved on land or in the ocean; certain pieces of evidence point towards oceanic origin based on possible close relationships between snakes and mosasaurs. However, further evidence shows that terrestrial origin
837-422: The presence of hypapophyses only in anterior trunk, that the middle and posterior trunk vertebrae possess a moderately or well-developed haemal keel, except for a few near the cloacal region, often with short laterally paired projections on the posterior part of the keel. Also, all trunk and caudal vertebrae have at least a parazygantral foramen, sometimes several of them, located in a more or less distinct fossa that
868-405: The presented studies all suggest in one form or another that the features and adaptations present in D. patagonica are more likely to be those of terrestrial adaptations than those of aquatic adaptations based on not only morphological characteristics, but plesiomorphic and apomorphic shared characteristics to that of current living snake species. This article about a Cretaceous reptile
899-567: The seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted
930-401: The spherical vestibule is an inner ear organ that is a morphological signature of burrowing snakes. A large spherical vestibule does not exist in aquatic or generalist (both land and water) snakes, only in snake species that burrow. A spherical vestibule contains a large saccular otolith, which transmits vibrations to the snake's brain. Due to a spherical vestibule, the Dinilysia patagonica was
961-541: The use of this term solely within the book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). In zoology ,