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Eophis is an early genus of stem-snake (clade Ophidia)[1] containing one species, Eophis underwoodi, from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) from the Forest Marble Formation of United Kingdom. It is known from a fragmentary dentary from Kirtlington Quarry. It was previously interpreted as an anguimorph lizard. The placement of Eophis as a stem snake was re-affirmed by subsequent analyses.[2]
Phylogeny
Cladogram based in the phylogenetic analysis by Caldwell et al. (2015):[1]
| Ophidia |
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See also
References
- ^ a b Caldwell, M. W.; Nydam, R. L.; Palci, A.; Apesteguía, S. N. (2015). "The oldest known snakes from the Middle Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous provide insights on snake evolution". Nature Communications. 6: 5996. Bibcode:2015NatCo...6.5996C. doi:10.1038/ncomms6996. hdl:11336/37995. PMID 25625704.
- ^ Harrington, Sean M.; Reeder, Tod W. (2017-02-18). "Phylogenetic inference and divergence dating of snakes using molecules, morphology and fossils: new insights into convergent evolution of feeding morphology and limb reduction". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 121 (2): 379–394. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blw039. ISSN 0024-4066.
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