Bearded man in blue shirt hold small scraping instrument up against a rock containing a fossil specimen.
Research Paper Collection

Discover more by exploring academic work developed by museum curators, collaborators, educators, and more.

A Late Pleistocene record of Drymarchon sp. (Serpentes: Colubridae: Colubrinae) from South Carolina, USA

Publication Name
(2019) Paludicola, 12(2):46-52
Author(s)
Knight, J.L., and D.J. Cicimurri

Numerous isolated snake vertebrae within the late Pleistocene-aged Ardis Local Fauna from Dorchester County represent the first fossil record of the colubrid genus Drymarchonin South Carolina.Four measurements from each of fifty of these isolated vertebrae were used to statistically differentiate Drymarchon from morphologically similar vertebrae of Coluberand Masticophis. This study highlights theutility andnecessity of standard measurements subjected to statistical methods todifferentiate isolated fossil snake vertebrae.Drymarchonis not part of the extant South Carolina herpetofauna, and the fossilmaterial therefore indicates that the geographic range of the genus has decreased slightly since the end of the last glacialmaximum.

 

View the Research Paper