Diablophis Explained

Diablophis is a genus of Late Jurassic stem-snake from the Morrison Formation of North America. The type and only species, D. gilmorei was once thought to be a species of Parviraptor[1] but is now classified as its own genus.[2] The animal is known from multiple specimens, the holotype being LACM 4684/140572, which consists of a broken right mandible, broken right maxilla and broken axis vertebrae. A number of other specimens have also been attributed to Diablophis, including LACM 4684/140572 and LACM 5572/120732, the specimens previously attributed to Parviraptor and LACM 4684/120472.

Phylogeny

Diablophis has been recovered as a basal snake, though this placement is disputed. The cladogram from figure 4b in Caldwell et al.'s 2015 study is replicated below.

Notes and References

  1. Evans, S.E. . 1996 . Parviraptor (Squamata: Anguimorpha) and other lizards from the Morrison Formation at Fruita, Colorado . The Continental Jurassic . 60 . 243–248.
  2. Caldwell, M.W. . Nydam, R.L. . Palci, A . Apesteguía, S . 2015 . The oldest known snakes from the Middle Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous provide insights on snake evolution . Nature Communications . 6 . 5996 . 10.1038/ncomms6996. free . 11336/37995 . free .