Coniophis

Coniophis is an extinct genus of snakes from the late Cretaceous period. The type species, Coniophis precedes, was about 7 cm long and had snake-like teeth and body form, with a skull and a largely lizard-like bone structure. It probably ate small vertebrates, such as lizards and salamanders. The fossil remains of Coniophis were first discovered at the end of the 19th century in the Lance Formation of the US state of Wyoming, and were described in 1892 by Othniel Charles Marsh. For the genus Coniophis, a number of other species have been described. Their affiliation is, however, poorly secured, mostly based on vertebrae descriptions from only a few fossils.

Fossil distribution

Fossils of Coniophis have been found in:

• Milk River and Frenchman Formations, Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan)
• Intertrappean Beds, India
• Wadi Milk Formation, Sudan
• United States
• Hell Creek Formation, Montana
• Fruitland Formation, New Mexico
• Naturita, Cedar Mountain, Straight Cliffs, Kaiparowits and Wahweap Formations, Utah
• Lance Formation, Wyoming

• Santa Lucía Formation (Tiupampan), Bolivia
• Jbel Guersif Formation, Morocco
• Fort Union Formation, Montana, United States

• Itaboraí Formation, Brazil
• France
• Aït Ouarhitane Formation, Morocco
• United States
• Chadron Formation, North Dakota
• Bridger, Wagon Bed and Wasatch Formations, Wyoming

References

Further reading

• Adriana María Albino: ' In: Ameghiniana 27, 1991. S. 337–342.
• Sebastián Apesteguía, Hussam Zaher: ' In: ' 440, 2006. , S. 1037–1040.
• Judy Gail Armstrong-Ziegler: ' In: ' 52 (2), 1978. S. 480–483.
• Marc Augé, Jean-Claude Rage: ' In: ' 92, 2006. , S. 235–253.
• Richard Estes: 'In: ' 50, 1976. S. 500–520.
• Richard C. Fox: ' In: ' 12, 1975. S. 1557–1563.
• James D. Gardner, Richard L. Cifelli: ' In: David M. Unwin: ' 60, 1999. S. 87–100.
• Robert Hoffstetter: ' In: Jean Piveteau: ' Masson, Paris 1955. S. 606–662
• J. Alan Holman: ' Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2000. .
• Nicholas R. Longrich, Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, Jacques A. Gauthier: ' In: Nature, 2012. , S. 1–4.
• Nicholas R. Longrich, Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, Jacques A. Gauthier: ' In: Nature, 2012. , S. 1–10.
• Othniel Charles Marsh: ' In: ' 43, 1892. S. 449–453.
• Paul Orman McGrew, Max K. Hecht, John M. Hummel, George Gaylord Simpson, Albert Elmer Wood: ' In: ' 117, 1959. S. 117–176. (Volltext)
• Jean-Claude Rage: ' In: Palaeontographica Abteilung A 25, 1988. S. 3–27.
• Jean-Claude Rage, C. Werner: ' In: Palaeontologia Africana 35, 1999. S. 85–110.
• Jean-Claude Rage, Guntupalli V.R. Prasad, Sunil Bajpai: ' In: ' 25, 2004. , S. 425–434.
• Jean-Claude Rage, Marc Augé: ' In: Geobios 42, 2010. , 253–268.