Menarana
Name: Menarana
Phonetic: Me-na-ra-na.
Named By: Thomas C. Ladukea, David W.
Krauseb, John D. Scanloncd & Nathan J. Kleyb.
Synonyms: Madtsoia laurasiae.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Serpentes, Madtsoiidae.
Species: M. nosymena
(type), M. laurasiae.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Around 2.4 meters long.
Known locations: Madagascar, Mahajanga Basin -
Maevarano Formation. Spain, Castilla y Leon.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several individuals.
2010
saw the description of a new genus of madtsoiid snake
called
Menarana. Although initially described from
Madagascan fossils, the
team describing the new genus also stated that a Spanish species of the
Madtsoiidae type genus Madtsoia
actually represented a second species.
This led to the creation of the Menarana type
species Menarana
nosymena from the Madagascan fossils, and the creation of
the second
species Menarana laurasiae from Spanish fossils
that were
originally described as Madtsoia laurasiae.
Menarana
is an interesting genus since it displays morphological traits that
suggest that in life it would create its own burrows. These features
include vertebrae which have reduced neural spines (making them
flatter and easier to fit down a hole); while the vertebrae near the
skull have a higher degree of fusing (allowing for rigidity against
the stresses of pushing into soil). The relatively large head size
of Menarana however, around seven centimetres
across, means that it
would have required a large amount of strength to dig burrows of any
significant size. For this reason the team describing Menarana
have
also suggested that these burrowing features may simply be evolutionary
throwbacks of an ancestor that was more dedicated to a burrowing
lifestyle. This speculation also exists for a related genus named
Yurlunggur,
since it has fused vertebrae but also a very blunt snout
that could not be pushed into soil.
With
a length of almost two and half meters, Menarana
was no giant and
would have been lower down the food chain. But as a snake it would
have been a predator nonetheless, although it would be limited to
smaller animals. It is not inconceivable that the burrowing
adaptations seen in Menarana may be the signs of a
specialist hunter
that followed other burrowing creatures into their burrows, perhaps
using its own larger head to open up a burrow so that it could reach in
devour the occupant within. Menarana could have
also hunted other
small animals on the ground, perhaps even raiding the nests of
dinosaurs to snatch new hatchlings, as has been speculated for
Sanejah,
another genus of madtsoiid snake also described in 2010.
Further reading
- A Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) snake assemblage from the
Maevarano Formation, Mahajanga Basin, Madagascar, Thomas C.
Ladukea, David W. Krauseb, John D. Scanloncd &
Nathan J. Kleyb - 2010.
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