Diplotomodon Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Snakes...why'd it have to be snakes?... All Indiana Jones jokes aside, how many of you out there have fossil snakes? I realize that snakes seem to be quite rare in the fossil record, but I'm sure some of you out there have em... Here's mine, which surprisingly was one of the first fossils I ever got. It's around 25cm long if you uncoil it. I'm not sure where it came from (it was a gift), but the skull, vertebral column, and ribs are all three-dimensional and raised off the slab. Now let's see what you have in the collections! What a wonderful menagerie! Who would believe that such as register lay buried in the strata? To open the leaves, to unroll the papyrus, has been an intensely interesting though difficult work, having all the excitement and marvelous development of a romance. And yet the volume is only partly read. Many a new page I fancy will yet be opened. -- Edward Hitchcock, 1858 Formerly known on the forum as Crimsonraptor @Diplotomodon on Twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Hi CR - Articulated snake fossils are quite uncommon and yours appears to be a complete example head to tail. If you can post a brighter and larger image file it might be possible to determine the what-where-when for your fossil. Perhaps you might borrow a camera from a friend for the occasion? I hope you are able to do so as I would really enjoy the opportunity to see it. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear-dog Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 SNAKE! :startle: :sick: Bear-dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Yeah, that is quite a gift. Complete body fossils of snakes come from Messel and very few other places. The matrix would be that epoxy used to stabilize one side while prepping the other if it's from Messel. It's hard to say from that photo. Hi CR - Articulated snake fossils are quite uncommon and yours appears to be a complete example head to tail. If you can post a brighter and larger image file it might be possible to determine the what-where-when for your fossil. Perhaps you might borrow a camera from a friend for the occasion? I hope you are able to do so as I would really enjoy the opportunity to see it. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickNC Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Those are incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I also would love to see a better photo of that snake. Uncommon is a bit of an umderstatement. Snakes are extremely rare as fossils. I have a number of isolated snake verts from the White River Fm, and somewhere in my boxes is a small piece witht three articulated verts, also White River. I have prepped a few for a friend who runs Douglas Fossils. He probably has the best fossil snake collection in the world.. that is he has more than three. Did a CT scan of one for the U of WY a few years ago that came out really cool. I'll see if I can find it. Now that I know how to use a CT scanmner, I oughta find that three vert piece and scan it. Here is how you use a CT scanner... you walk into the local hospital with a rock and ask them to scan it. Sometimes it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 (edited) OK, its not mine (it is a UW specimen) and the picture doesn't do it justice, but this is a CT scan of an Oligocene snake from Wyoming. Two views. The rock is about 8 inches long... or 20 cm. Edited April 23, 2011 by jpc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paleo-shark_hunter Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 Thats awesome! "Re-living History, one piece at a time..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilshale Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 (edited) This is a snake from Messel (together with a coprolite). Don't know the species. Thomas Edited May 21, 2011 by oilshale Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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