A newly identified fossil snake reveals clues about early advanced snake evolution. Its mixed traits highlight an ancient branch of the caenophidian family tree.
More than forty years after it was first unearthed, an ancient snake has finally slithered its way out of obscurity.
The reptile, now named Paradoxophidion richardoweni, is helping researchers explore how the most widespread group of modern snakes first began to evolve.
Back in 1981, fossilized vertebrae were discovered at Hordle Cliff along the southern coast of England. Those bones have now been recognized as belonging to a species that had not been documented before.
According to research published in the journal Comptes Rendus Palevol, the vertebrae represent a new species called Paradoxophidion richardoweni. This snake lived roughly 37 million years ago, during a time when many more snake species were present in what is now England.
Insights into early caenophidian evolution
Although much about the snake’s biology remains unknown, its remains provide valuable information about the early history of caenophidians, the large group that includes most living snakes. Paradoxophidion appears to be one of the earliest members of this lineage.
Its anatomy shows an unusual blend of traits that today are spread across different caenophidian snakes, a combination reflected in its genus name Paradoxophidion, which translates to ‘paradox snake’ in Greek.
The species name honors Sir Richard Owen, who described the first fossil snakes from Hordle Cliff and played a key role in establishing what is now the Natural History Museum, where these fossils are held.
Lead author Dr. Georgios Georgalis, from the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, says that being able to describe a new species from our collections was ‘a dream come true.’
“It was my childhood dream to be able to visit the Natural History Museum, let alone do research there,” reveals Georgios. “So, when I saw these very weird vertebrae in the collection and knew that they were something new, it was a fantastic feeling.”
“It’s especially exciting to have described an early diverging caenophidian snake, as there’s not that much evidence about how they emerged. Paradoxophidion brings us closer to understanding how this happened.”
What’s been discovered at Hordle Cliff?
Hordle Cliff, near Christchurch on England’s south coast, provides a window into a period of Earth’s history known as the Eocene that lasted from around 56 to 34 million years ago.
Dr. Marc Jones, our curator of fossil reptiles and amphibians who co-authored the research, says that this epoch saw dramatic climatic changes around the world.
“Around 37 million years ago, England was much warmer than it is now,” Marc explains. “Though the Sun was very slightly dimmer, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide were much higher.”
“England was also slightly closer to the equator, meaning that it received more heat from the Sun year-round.”
Fossils were first uncovered at Hordle Cliff around 200 years ago. In the early 1800s Barbara Rawdon-Hastings, the fossil-hunting Marchioness of Hastings, collected the skulls of crocodile relatives from the site, one of which Richard Owen would later name after her.
Since then, a variety of fossil turtles, lizards, and mammals have also been uncovered at Hordle Cliff. There are also abundant snake fossils, including some particularly important species.
“The fossil snakes found at Hordle Cliff were some of the first to be recognized when Richard Owen studied them in the mid-nineteenth century,” says Georgios. “They include Paleryx, the first named constrictor snake in the fossil record.”
“Smaller snakes from this site, however, haven’t been as well investigated. Paradoxophidion’s vertebrae are just a few millimeters long, so historically they’ve not had a lot of attention.”
To get a better look at these fossils, Marc and Georgios took CT scans of the bones. In total, they identified 31 vertebrae from different parts of the spine of Paradoxophidion.
“We used these CT scans to make three dimensional models of the fossils,” Marc adds. “These provide a digital record of the specimen which we’ve shared online, so that they can be studied by anyone, not just people who can come to the museum and use our microscopes.”
The scans show that the fossils are all slightly different shapes and sizes, as the snake’s spine bones gradually taper from head to tail. However, they share some features that show they all belong to one species.
Georgios estimates that Paradoxophidion would have been less than a meter long, but other details about this animal’s life are hard to say. The lack of a skull makes it difficult to know what it ate, while the vertebrae don’t have any sign of being adapted for a specialized lifestyle, such as burrowing.
A living link to the past?
Though the vertebrae don’t give much away about Paradoxophidion’s lifestyle, they are strikingly similar to a group of snakes known as the Acrochordids. These reptiles are known as elephant trunk snakes due to their unusually baggy skin.
Today, only a few species of these snakes can be found living in southeast Asia and northern Australia. But they’re among the earliest branches of the caenophidian family tree, with a fossil record extending back over 20 million years.
“As Paradoxophidion is really similar to the acrochordids, it’s possible that this snake could be the oldest known member of this family,” muses Georgios. “If it was, then it could mean that it was an aquatic species, as all Acrochordids are aquatic.”
“On the other hand, it might belong to a completely different group of caenophidians. There’s just not enough evidence at the moment to prove how this snake might have lived, or which family it belongs to.”
Finding out more about Paradoxophidion and the early evolution of the caenophidians means that more fossils will need to be studied. Georgios hopes to continue his work in our fossil reptile collections in the near future, where he believes more new species might be waiting.
“I’m planning to study a variety of snake fossils in the collection, including those originally studied by Richard Owen,” Georgios adds. “These include the remains of the giant aquatic snake Palaeophis, which were first found in England in the nineteenth century.”
“There are also several bones with differing morphology that haven’t been investigated before that I’m interested in looking at. These might represent new taxa and offer additional clues about snake evolution.”
Reference: “A new peculiar early diverging caenophidian snake (Serpentes) from the late Eocene of Hordle Cliff, England” by Georgios L. Georgalis and Marc E. H. Jones, 7 November 2025, Comptes Rendus Palevol.
DOI: 10.5852/cr-palevol2025v24a25
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1 Comment
Really interesting keep it coming