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Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes

Research Evolutionary Biology

Merged summary

TL;DR - A well-preserved Late Cretaceous fossil snake from Brazil reveals that early snakes already exhibited substantial ecological and brain-shape diversity, informing their evolutionary history.

  • The specimen dates to the Late Cretaceous.
  • Its preservation enables analysis of early snake brain morphology.
  • The fossil indicates early ecological disparity within snakes.
  • Further technical findings cannot be inferred from the brief description provided.

Sources (1)

Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes

Nature Tiago R. Simões, Gabriela Sobral, Simone Macrì, Roy Ebel, Thiago S. Fachini, Agustín G. Martinelli, William R. Nava, Giovanna M. X. Paixão, Luis M. Chiappe, Nicolas Di-Poï, Annie S. Hsiou 2026-07-22 doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10809-9

TL;DR - A well-preserved Late Cretaceous fossil snake from Brazil reveals that early snakes already exhibited substantial ecological and brain-shape diversity, informing their evolutionary history.

  • The specimen dates to the Late Cretaceous.
  • Its preservation enables analysis of early snake brain morphology.
  • The fossil indicates early ecological disparity within snakes.
  • Further technical findings cannot be inferred from the brief description provided.
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