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'''''Python europaeus''''' is an [[extinct]] [[Python (genus)|python]] species. It lived during the early/middle [[miocene]]. The [[holotype]] is a single trunk [[vertebra]] found in France.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Schleip W. |author2=O'Shea M. |year=2010 |title=Annotated checklist of the recent and extinct pythons (Serpentes, Pythonidae), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution |journal=ZooKeys |issue=66 |pages=29–79 |doi=10.3897/zookeys.66.683 |pmid=21594030 |pmc=3088416|doi-access=free |bibcode=2010ZooK...66...29S }}</ref>
==Discovery and naming==
Fossilized remains of ''Python europaeus'' were first reported in 1958 by French herpetologist [[Robert Hoffstetter]], decades before the species was named, who published that python fossils had been found in the localities of [[Pontlevoy|Pont-Levoy]], [[La Grive-Saint-Alban]] and Mont Ceindre (now known as Vieux Collonges) in [[France]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoffstetter |first=Robert |date=1958 |title=Les Squamates (Sauriens et Serpents) du Miocène français |url=https://eurekamag.com/research/022/946/022946851.php |journal=Compte Rendu du 8383e CongresCongrès des SocietesSociétés savantes de Paris et des Départements |volume=83 |pages=195–200}}</ref> The material from Vieux Collonges would be mentioned in later works published in during the 1970s and 1980s, which refer to the material as an unnamed species of ''[[Python (genus)|Python]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |lastlast1=R |firstfirst1=Hoffstetter |last2=J-C |first2=Rage |date=1972 |title=Les Erycinae fossiles de france (Serpentes, Boidae) comprehension et histoire de la sous-famille. |url=https://jglobal.jst.go.jp/en/detail?JGLOBAL_ID=201602020483127330 |journal=Annales de Paléontologie (Vertébrés) |language=en |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=81–129}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Thomas |firstfirst1=H. |last2=Sen |first2=S. |last3=Khan |first3=M. |last4=Battail |first4=B. |last5=Ligabue |first5=G. |date=1982 |title=The Lower Miocene Fauna of Al-Sarrar (Eastern province, Saudi Arabia) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285372320 |journal=Atlal (Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology) |volume=5 |pages=109–136}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |lastlast1=Demarcq |firstfirst1=Gerard |last2=Ballesio |first2=Rolland |last3=Rage |first3=Jean-Claude |last4=Guerin |first4=Claude |last5=Mein |first5=Pierre |last6=Meon |first6=Henriette |date=1983-07-01 |title=Donnees paleoclimatiques du neogene de la Vallee du Rhone (France) |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0031018283900251 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=247–272 |doi=10.1016/0031-0182(83)90025-1 |bibcode=1983PPP....42..247D |issn=0031-0182|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Snakes: ecology and evolutionary biology |date=1987 |publisher=Blackburn Press |isbn=978-1-930665-15-6 |editor-last=Seigel |editor-first=Richard A. |___location=Caldwell, N.J |pages=51–76 |chapter=Fossil history |editor-last2=Collins |editor-first2=Joseph T. |editor-last3=Novak |editor-first3=Susan S.}}</ref> In 2001, the Vieux CollingesCollonges material, consisting of over 300 vertebrae[[vertebra]]e and a [[palatine bone]], was illustrated and redescribed in detail by Martin Ivanov, though he believed the incompleteness of the skull made it impossible to identify this material to the species level, and identified it only as a member of the genus ''Python''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ivanov |first=Martin |date=2000 |title=Snakes of the lower/middle Miocene transition at Vieux Collonges (Rhône, France), with comments on the colonisation of western Europe by colubroids |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228367304 |journal=Geodiversitas |language=en |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=559–588 |s2cid=126907224}}</ref>
In 2003, a study reanalysed the python fossils first reported by Hoffstetter and determined that they represent a new species, distinguished from others by its lower [[neural spines]]. This species was given the name ''Python europaeus'', the [[Specific name (zoology)|specific name]] referring to [[Europe]], the continent from which its remains originate. A single trunk vertebra from Vieux Collonges ([[MNHN]], VCO 29) was designated as the [[holotype]] specimen of this species, with an additional 379 vertebrae and one palatine bone being referred to it. The referred material originates from Vieux Collonges and La Grive-Saint-Alban, however no python remains could be traced from Pontlevoy, leading the authors to suggest that the supposed python fossils from Pontlevoy reported by Hoffstetter are actually remains of ''[[Botrophis gaudryi]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Szyndler |first1=Zbigniew |last2=Rage |first2=Jean-Claude |date=2003 |title=Non-Erycine Booidea from the Oligocene and Miocene of Europe |url=https://www.nhbs.com/non-erycine-booidea-from-the-oligocene-and-miocene-of-europe-book |journal=Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Cracow |pages=1–109}}</ref>
==References==
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