Eoconstrictor fischeri

Eoconstrictor is an extinct genus of booid snake, from the Eocene of Germany. The type species, E. fischeri is known from multiple well-preserved specimens found in the Messel Pit of Germany. It was originally named as Palaeopython fischeri by Stephan Schaal in 2004, but examination of the genus showed that it represented a distinct lineage; it was renamed as the new genus Eoconstrictor in 2020. Like modern boids, Eoconstrictor possessed pit organs on its upper jaw, which would have given it the ability to sense infrared radiation; however, all known fossils of Eoconstrictor’s stomach contents are of cold-blooded animals, suggesting that its infrared senses were unlikely to have been used for predation. In a subsequent study Georgalis, Rabi & Smith (2021) reinterpreted "Paleryx" spinifer from the Eocene Geiseltal Lagerstätte as the second species belonging to the genus Eoconstrictor. Palci et al. (2023) named the third species belonging to this genus, E. barnesi described on the basis of fossils from the Geiseltal Lagerstätte.

Eoconstrictor fischeri

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
EoconstrictorPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Booidea
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Booidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Booidea

Time the record covers

At least 3.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41.03 Mya37.71 Mya48.6 Mya33.4 Mya

3 occurrences of Eoconstrictor fischeri on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Messel — 49.93°N, 8.75°E

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The named rock units Eoconstrictor fischeri has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eoconstrictor fischeri and its relatives

Eocene

Where Eoconstrictor fischeri and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

133 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Eoconstrictor fischeri, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Eoconstrictor fischeri

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Eoconstrictor fischeri was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEoconstrictor through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schaal 2004)