The Westernmost Asian Record of Pythonids (Serpentes): The Presence of Python in a Miocene Hominoid Locality of Anatolia

Abstract

Pythonids are fascinating extant reptiles comprising exclusively non-venomous Old-World taxa and including some of the largest known snakes (Murphy and Henderson, 1997). Being thermophilous reptiles, they are distributed in tropical and sub-tropical areas in sub-Saharan Africa, southern and southeastern Asia, Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia (Schleip and O’Shea, 2010; Wallach et al., 2014; Head, 2015). The most wellknown genus is Python, which recent molecular studies have nevertheless suggested partitioning into different genera (e.g., Rawlings et al., 2008; Reynolds et al., 2014). The fossil record of Python (sensu lato) is not adequately known; however, it still denotes a more extensive geographic distribution with the genus reaching Europe (Romer, 1870; Rage, 1976, 1984, 2003; Ivanov, 2000; Szyndlar and Rage, 2003; Head, 2015). Accordingly, in Asia the genus achieved a broader geographic distribution during the Neogene and Quaternary, with sporadic finds having been described during the past 130 years (Lydekker, 1888; Noetling, 1901; Hoffstetter, 1964; Rage, 1982; Rage et al., 2001; Head, 2005). Here we describe fossil vertebrae attributable to Python from the middle Miocene (late MN 5) hominoid locality of Pasalar, Turkey, which is one of the richest and most diverse mammal localities of that age across Eurasia (Andrews and Tobien, 1977; Alpagut, 1990; Alpagut et al., 1990, 2016; Andrews, 1990, 1995; Andrews and Alpagut, 1990; Ersoy et al., 2008; Kelley et al., 2008; Valenciano et al., 2019). The Pasalar Python represents the first fossil record of the genus from Anatolia. The material shows some general resemblance to the geographically proximate but enigmatic early Miocene Greek taxon Python euboicus, but due to the fact that the latter species is poorly known and its holotype and only known specimen is lost, we refrain from assigning the Anatolian specimens to that species and only refer them as Python sp. The Pasalar specimens represent the westernmost Asian occurrence of Python, confirming a rather wide Palearctic occurrence of the genus during the early and middle Miocene. Institutional Abbreviations—BP, Bursa-Pasalar collection, Pasalar Excavation Site, ustafakemalpasa, Turkey; EUNMH PV, Natural History Museum of Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; GMH, Geiseltalmuseum of Martin-Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg, now referred to as the Geiseltalsammlung, housed as part of the Zentralmagazin Naturwissenschaftlicher Sammlungen, Halle, Germany; HNHM, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary; MDHC, Massimo Delfino Herpetological Collection, University of Torino, Torino, Italy; MNCN, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain; MNHN, Museum national d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France; NHMUK, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom; NHMW, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria; PIMUZ, Palaontologisches Institut und Museum der Universitat Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; ZPW, Institute of Palaeontology, Wroclaw University, Poland; ZZSiD, Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland