Palaeophis

noun

Pa·​lae·​o·​phis

pəˈlēəfə̇s

: a genus of large extinct snakes from the Lower Eocene of England and France that are the earliest known members of the suborder Serpentes sharing many characters with and probably being ancestral to the recent pythons and boas

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from pale- + -ophis

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