Palaeophis

{{Short description|Extinct genus of snakes}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Ypresian - Priabonian, {{Fossil range|56.0|33.9|earliest=100.5}} Possible Cenomanian - Maastrichtian record

| image = Palaeophiidae - Palaeophis maghrebianus.JPG

| image_caption = Fossil vertebrae of Palaeophis maghrebianus from Khouribga (Morocco)

| image_upright = 1.15

| taxon = Palaeophis

| authority = Owen, 1841

| type_species = {{extinct}}Palaeophis toliapicus

| type_species_authority = Owen, 1841

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = {{collapsible list|bullets = true

|title=Species

| †Palaeophis africanus Andrews 1924

| †Palaeophis casei Holman 1982

| †Palaeophis colossaeus Rage 1983

| †Palaeophis ferganicus Averianov 1997

| †Palaeophis grandis Marsh 1869

| †Palaeophis littoralis Cope 1847

| †Palaeophis maghrebianus Arambourg 1952

| †Palaeophis nessovi Averianov 1997

| †Palaeophis oweni Zigno 1881

| †Palaeophis tamdy Averianov 1997

| †Palaeophis toliapicus Owen 1841(type)

| †Palaeophis typhaeus Owen 1850

| †Palaeophis vastaniensis Bajpai & Head 2008

| †Palaeophis virginianus Lynn 1934

| †Palaeophis zhylan Averianov 1997}}

| synonyms = *Dinophis (Marsh, 1869)

• Titanophis (Marsh, 1878)
• Vialovophis (Averianov, 1997)

}}

Palaeophis ('ancient snake') is an extinct genus of marine snake that is the type genus of the extinct snake family Palaeophiidae.

Described species within this genus lived in the Eocene epoch, with some unnamed or questionable records from Cenomanian and Maastrichtian.{{Cite journal |last1=Folie |first1=Annelise |last2=Mees |first2=Florias |last3=De Putter |first3=Thierry |last4=Smith |first4=Thierry |date=2021-07-01 |title=Presence of the large aquatic snake Palaeophis africanus in the middle Eocene marine margin of the Congo Basin, Cabinda, Angola |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016699520300954 |journal=Geobios |series=Proceedings of the PalEurAfrica project international symposium Evolution and Paleoenvironment of Early Modern Vertebrates during the Paleogene |language=en |volume=66-67 |pages=45–54 |doi=10.1016/j.geobios.2020.11.002 |bibcode=2021Geobi..66...45F |s2cid=229411514 |issn=0016-6995}} Fossils of species within this genus have been found in England, France, Denmark,{{cite journal|last=Kristensen|first=H. V.|author2=Cuny, G. |author3=Rasmussen, A. R. |author4= Madsen, H |title=Earliest record of the fossil snake Palaeophis from the Paleocene/Eocene boundary in Denmark|journal=Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France|date=2012|volume=183|issue=6|pages=621–625|url=http://bsgf.geoscienceworld.org/content/183/6/621.abstract |doi=10.2113/gssgfbull.183.6.621}} Morocco and Mali.{{cite journal|last=Rage|first=J.-C.|title=Palaeophis colossaeus nov. sp. (le plus grand Seprent connu?) de l'Eocène du Mali et le problème du genre chez les Palaeopheinae|journal=Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris |date=1983|volume=3|issue=296|pages=1741–1744}} Remains have also been found in North America, including Maryland and Virginia (from the early Eocene Nanjemoy Formation),Blake, S. F. "Note on a vertebra of Palaeophis from the Eocene of Maryland." Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 31.12 (1941): 501-503. GeorgiaParmley, Dennis, and Harold W. Reed. "Size and age class estimates of North American Eocene palaeopheid snakes." Georgia Journal of Science 61.4 (2003): 220. and Mississippi.Holman, J. Alan. "Palaeophis casei, new species, a tiny palaeophid snake from the early Eocene of Mississippi." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 2.2 (1982): 163-166.