Sanajeh

Sanajeh indicus in a Sauropodennest with eggs and a cub, live reconstruction.

• Gujarat (India)

Sanajeh ( Sanskrit: Sanaj = old; jeh = mouth) is an extinct genus from the Upper Cretaceous snake, whose fossil remains were found along with eggs and a Titanosaurierjungtier in Lameta Formation in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because the fossils were found in layers just below the formed about 66 million years Deccan Traps, their age is estimated to 67.5 million years.

The holotype consists of an almost perfectly preserved skull, the lower jaw and a total of 72 vertebrae and ribs, which are obtained in five separate sections obtained in the anatomical context.

Description

The length of Sanajeh is estimated based on the 9.5 -centimeter-long skull to approximately 3.5 meters. She had not even the highly mobile skull of modern snakes, which allows the devouring of prey that is much larger than its mouth diameter, but rather lizard- like jaws.

Nutrition

The skeleton of Sanajeh was with three Sauropodeneier of Dinosaurierparataxons Megaloolithus dhoridungriensis and a partially preserved Sauropodennestling found in close association. The spine of the snake consists of three sides of a broken ice, from which probably shortly before the nestling hatched. The other two eggs are intact. The nestling must belong to the group of Titanosauria because it was the only Sauropodenlinie who still lived on the Indian subcontinent in the Upper Cretaceous.

Probably Sanajeh fed on dinosaur nestlings, but was not able to eat the large Sauropodeneier (16 cm diameter ), because her mouth was too small and they had no adjustments to a oophage of life, such as the Indian egg-eating snake. However Sanajeh could also have eggs opened by crushing with her ​​body, as it makes the current red-tailed Python ( Loxocemus bicolor) with eggs of the Olive Ridley turtle ( Lepidochelys olivacea ).

System

Sanajeh one of the Madtsoiidae, an extinct snake family, which is also associated with the Australian genus Wonambi. The systematic position of Sanajeh within the snakes clear from the following cladogram:

Blindsnakes ( Scolecophidia )

Dinilysia patagonica †

Roll snakes ( Aniliidae )

Pipesnakes ( Cylindrophiidae )

Sign tails ( Uropeltidae )

Anomochilus

Sanajeh indicus †

Wonambi †

Spitzkopf pythons ( Loxocemidae )

Pachyophiidae †

Ungaliophinae

Sand boas ( Erycinae )

Pythons ( Pythonidae )

Boa snakes ( Boinae )

Bolyerschlangen ( Bolyeriidae )

Tropidophiinae

Filesnakes ( Acrochordidae )

Vipers and viper -like ( Colubroidea )