Madtsoiidae

Madtsoiidae is an extinct family of snakes known from fossils spanning the Cretaceous to the Cenozoic. Its members included some of the largest snakes known from fossil remains.

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Snake: A limbless, elongated reptile in the suborder Serpentes. Madtsoiids are an extinct lineage within the broader group of snakes.
Madtsoia: An extinct genus of madtsoiid snakes known from Cretaceous and Paleogene fossils. This genus gave the family its name and includes large-bodied fossil snakes.
Cretaceous: A geological period lasting from about 145 to 66 million years ago. Some of the earliest known madtsoiid fossils date to this period.
Snake phylogeny: The evolutionary relationships among snakes, living and extinct. Madtsoiid placement among early snake lineages remains difficult to establish.
Snake vertebra: A bone in a snake’s backbone, often preserving diagnostic features in fossils. Madtsoiid classification relies heavily on distinctive fossil vertebrae.
Wonambi: An extinct Australian snake genus known from Miocene fossils. Wonambi demonstrates that madtsoiids persisted in Australia long after the Cretaceous.
Paleogene: The geological period from about 66 to 23 million years ago, following the Cretaceous. Madtsoiids survived into the Paleogene, extending their record beyond the dinosaur extinction.
Fossil calibration: The use of fossils to constrain the timing of evolutionary divergences. Madtsoiid fossils can affect estimates of when major snake lineages arose.
Vertebrate paleontology: The study of fossilized animals with backbones and their evolutionary history. Madtsoiid diversity and age are reconstructed from vertebrate fossils.
Gigantophis: An extinct giant snake genus known from Eocene fossils in North Africa. Its enormous size illustrates the upper end of madtsoiid body-size estimates.