Name: Madtsoia
Phonetic: Mat-soy-ah.
Named By: George Gaylord Simpson - 1933.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Scleroglossa, Serpentes, Madtsoiidae.
Species: M. bai (type), M.
camposi, M.
camposi, M. madagascariensis, M. pisdurensis.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete remains, but width
of vertebra indicates a large size at least 5 meters long.
Known locations: Worldwide paticularly across
southern continents with locations including Argentina, Brazil, Spain,
India, Niger and Madagascar.
Time period: Campanian to Maastrichtian of the
Cretaceous through to the Eocene of the Palaeogene.
Fossil representation: Scattered vertebra.
Madtsoia
is the genus that was used to name the Madtsoiidae group of prehistoric
snakes
that include others such as Gigantophis
of North Africa to the
much later Wonambi
of Australia. Madtsoia is one of the older members
with fossils indicating that it was active during the time of the
dinosaurs. Unfortunately no one can say for certain what the exact
upper size for Madtsoia could be. This is because
there is so far no
complete specimen recovered with existing remains of only scattered
vertebrae known. These vertebrae do however suggest that Madtsoia
did
grow to a huge size, although it probably did not grow as large as the
huge Titanoboa
which is currently regarded as the biggest snake to ever
live.
Like
other members of its group, Madtsoia was a
constrictor, a snake that
squeezes its prey to death. How this method kills its prey is actually
still a matter of debate, but it either squeezes the ribs so that air
cannot be breathed, or the pressure of the snake squeezing causes the
heart to stop beating (cardiac arrest). Before the KT extinction
sixty-five million years ago, Madtsoia probably
hunted small dinosaurs,
and possibly also small mammals when young. After the extinction
Madtsoia would have had to focus on the newly
evolving mammals, birds
and possibly other reptiles like crocodiles, a precedent which has been
observed in the modern world.
Madtsoia's
continued entry beyond the extinction that saw the end of the dinosaurs
is potential proof that not all of the large animals died out. However
the saving grace for Madtsoia was probably its cold
blooded and slower
metabolism. While the dinosaurs may not have been warm blooded in the
classical sense, they probably had fast metabolisms through the
processes of gigantothermy and insulatory feathers. This meant that
they needed constant and larger amounts of food which was no longer
available which resulted in them starving. Snakes however, along with
the crocodiles could essentially shut down and make do with less food
for longer periods. All they had to do was wait for the planet and
ecosystems to start to recover which would not have necessarily been a
long amount of time.
Further reading
- A new fossil snake from the Notostylops beds of Patagonia. - Bulletin
of the American Museum of Natural History 67:1-22. - G. G. Simpson -
1933.
- Noveaux restes d’un serpent Boid� (Madtsoia madagascariensis
nov.
sp.) dans le Cr�tac� Sup�rieur de Madagascar. - Bulletin du Mus�um
national d’Historie naturelle, S�rie 2, Paris (33)152-160. - R.
Hoffstetter - 1961.
- Fossil snakes from the Palaeocene of S�o Jos� de Itabora�, Brazil.
Part I. Madtsoiidae, Aniliidae. - Palaeovertebrata 27(3-4):109-144 - J.
-C. 1998.
- A new species of the snake Madtsoia from the
Upper Cretaceous of
India and its paleobiogeographic implications. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 31 (3): 588–595. - D. M. Mohabey, J. J. head, J. A. Wilson
- 2011.