The Fossil of the animal
The Messelophyton is an extinct genus of the python-like reptiles that belonged to Pythonoidea (Reptile Superfamily which included Pythons).
The only known species so faris Messelopython freyi from the oil slates of the Middle Messel Formation of the Messel pit in the district of the same name in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse. [1]
Description[]
The generic name is made up of “Messel”, the type locality , and “python” as the name of the most closely related recent snakes. The additional species " freyi " honors the German paleontologist Eberhard Frey . The first description of the genus and type species was carried out in 2020 by Hussam Zaher and Krister T. Smith.
In addition to the holotype SMNK-PAL 461, an almost complete skeleton with a partially preserved skull, there are three further, almost complete skeletons with skulls of varying well-preserved condition: the paratypes SMF-ME 710, SMF-ME 2784 and HLMD-Be 165. Another find (HLMD-Me 10583) is also assigned to the new genus and its type species (“referred specimen”). All known finds come from the Middle Messel Formation of the Messel Pit; with an estimated total length of 97 cm for the largest known specimen copy (HLMD-Be 165), Messelopython was a medium-sized representative of the Pythonoidea. [2]
The close relationship with the Pythonidae is shown by several similarities ( synapomorphies ) in the structure of the cranial skeleton, such as a toothed premaxillary without a central diastema , a palatine foramen located on the palatine bone , or the sagittal crests on the parietal and sphenoid bone. [3]
Messelopython differs from other representatives of the python-like by its six teeth in the area of the premaxillary, the s-shaped curved outer edges of the maxilla , large, crescent-shaped supraorbital (a pair of skull bones above the eye sockets), which are approximately the same length as the frontal bone , as well a reduced overlap between pterygoid and ectopterygoid.