Early Pleistocene snake (Squamata, Reptilia) skeleton from Renzidong Cave, Anhui, China

Abstract

The Quaternary record of fossil snakes (Reptilia, Squamata) in Asia is extremely rare; any information is noteworthy. An articulated snake skeleton was recovered from the early Pleistocene (2.15–2.14 Ma) deposits in Renzidong Cave, Yangtze River Valley, east-central China. The skeleton contains about 122 nearly complete vertebrae but lacks the cranium and caudal vertebrae. Preserved vertebral characters indicate that the snake is particularly similar to the rat snake, Elaphe (Colubridae) especially with the European Elaphe praelongissima (late Miocene). We identify the specimen as cf. Elaphe sp. This genus and ‘Coluber s.l.’ are unfortunately similar and difficult to differentiate based on just vertebral comparisons of species living in Europe. Adequate comparative skeletons of living snakes of eastern Asia are noticeably absent in museums making identifications of fossil specimens less than satisfactory. Finding dated fossil remains of the snake Elaphe in Asia holds importance to the understanding of its time of dispersal between Asia, Europe and North America, but this can only be adequately examined with fossil remains accurately and satisfactorily identified.

Keywords::

• China
• cave
• snake
• Pleistocene
• Elaphe

Acknowledgements

Yuki Tomida is thanked by J.I. Mead for introducing him to the researchers of the IVPP and initiating many years worth of collaboration and for helping him learn all about palaeontology in the late 1970s. Sandra Swift is thanked for the preparation of the photographs and continued help on the collective projects between ETSU and IVPP. The authors greatly appreciate Yuan Wang (IVPP, Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins) for the continued support and discussions about faunas in China. They also thank Jean-Claude Rage, Márton Venczel and an anonymous reviewer for the editing suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Initial support for the project was received from the American Philosophical Society for a Franklin Research Grant to J.I. Mead in 2006. D. Moscato received an East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students award from the U.S. National Science Foundation in 2010. The study presented here was supported by the Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-03), National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41202017] and the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology) [grant number 143109]. Additional funding to J.I. Mead and B.W. Schubert was received from the Center of Excellence in Paleontology, East Tennessee State University.