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| Cheilophis periplanetes Georgalis & Mennecart, 2025 |
We here document new snake vertebral material from the early Eocene (MP 10) of Cuis, France, that we describe as a new species of Cheilophis Gilmore, 1938, a genus that was so far exclusively known from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America. The new taxon bears several anatomical features with the type, and so far, only known species of Cheilophis from North America. However, there are also important differences that allow us to recognize it as a new congeneric species. If our identification is correct, this first observed occurrence of Cheilophis from France adds another shared terrestrial vertebrate genus between Europe and North America, reinforcing biogeographic hypotheses about dispersals between the two landmasses around the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).
Keywords: Serpentes, vertebral morphology, dispersals, Paleogene, new species
SERPENTES Linnaeus, 1758
ALETHINOPHIDIA Nopcsa, 1923
CONSTRICTORES Oppel, 1811 (sensu Georgalis &Smith, 2020)
Cheilophis periplanetes n. sp.
Etymology. The new species epithet is from the greek word 'periplanetes', which means “wanderer”, reflecting the potential wandering that occurred during the dispersals among North America and Europe.
Georgios L. GEORGALIS and Bastien MENNECART. 2025. Another Wanderer from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum? A New Species of the North American Snake Genus Cheilophis Gilmore, 1938 from the early Eocene of France. Comptes Rendus Palevol. 24 (16) 317-331. DOI: doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2025v24a16 [25 June 2025]
This article is a part of the thematic issue: Snakes from the Cenozoic of Europe – towards a macroevolutionary and palaeobiogeographic synthesis.
https://x.com/DrGeorgalis/status/1937876893199478842
