Snakes have been around for almost 100 million years and researchers have tracked down numerous fossils of wiped out species. In any case, this surprising example is unique. This snake is Sanajeh indicus. It is sitting in a dinosaur home and its curls encompass three eggs and the body of a hatchling.
There are many reasons to believe that this ancient tableau depicted a predator caught in the act of hunting rather than a jumble of random characters. The snake is precisely positioned, its body encasing a broken egg and its head perched atop a coil. Exceptionally little of the snake, dinosaur, or crushed egg has been deformed, and all the fragments are very well preserved. Everything points to the possibility that the animals were taken by surprise and rapidly buried in mud.
The hatchling in question is a baby sauropod part of the dinosaur lineage that included the largest land animals of all time. It was probably a titanosaur, and being in India, that narrows things down to two known species – Isisaurus and Jainosaurus. The adults were formidable animals, 20-25 meters in length, and protected by bony armor running down their backs. But even the largest dinosaurs must have hatched out of a small egg, and at that point, they were vulnerable. The hatchling that Sanajeh was about to dispatch was just 50 centimeters long, while the snake itself measured 3.5 meters.
The hatchling would still have been a sizable bite despite the size difference. That wouldn't be a problem for the majority of contemporary snakes. Their flexible skulls are constructed of bones that can slide against one other, and their lower jaws can unhinge to allow for a wide gap,.
Sanajeh had reached the midway point in creating these specializations. Its maw could not open quite as wide as those of today's record-breakers because it lacked the set heads and constrictive gaps of the most basic contemporary snakes. However, it was capable of swallowing a baby sauropod, giving Sanajeh inidcus its name. The words mean "old gape from the Indus" in Sanskrit.
Sanajeh is 67 million years old, yet it wasn't until 26 years after its bones were discovered that it became widely known. The amazing specimen was first discovered in 1984 by Dhananjay Mohabey not far from the Indian town of Dholi Dungri. He recognized the dinosaur infant and the egg's bones with accuracy, but he didn't give it any further attention. When Jeffrey A. Wilson from the University of Michigan visited Mohabey and reexamined the specimen, it wasn't until 17 years later that the true nature of the specimen was revealed. He was shocked to see a snake's unmistakable backbones wrapped around the infant.
Sanajeh is 67 million years old, yet it wasn't until 26 years after its bones were discovered that it became widely known. The amazing specimen was first discovered in 1984 by Dhananjay Mohabey not far from the Indian town of Dholi Dungri. He recognized the dinosaur infant and the egg's bones with accuracy, but he didn't give it any further attention. When Jeffrey A. Wilson from the University of Michigan visited Mohabey and reexamined the specimen, it wasn't until 17 years later that the true nature of the specimen was revealed. He was shocked to see a snake's unmistakable backbones wrapped around the infant.
The pair discovered a second block that had been obtained at the same period but had never been described by searching through the Geological Society of India's archives. It joined the first one like a puzzle piece, completing the snake's coils around the broken dinosaur egg. Even then, it required years of negotiations with the Indian Ministry of Mines before Sanajeh could be transported to Michigan for meticulous preparation and research and before Mohabey and Wilson could go back to the original dig site to collect more specimens.
Eventually, they discovered two Sanajeh individuals at the same location, both connected to sauropod nests. This shows that they produced their own drama more than once. This snake appears to have made it a practice to devour would-be giants, at least in this area.
Perhaps the presence of just hatched young attracts the snakes to the nests. Since they would indeed dwarf their prey at that precise moment—one of the few times—the size advantage would vanish within months. Wilson further speculates that Sanajeh may have purposefully broken the egg to release the meal inside. The Mexican burrowing snake (Loxocemus bicolor), which currently fractures Olive Ridley turtle eggs before eating the contents, undoubtedly sets a precedent for this today.
You must be logged in to post a comment.