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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchPalaeophis colossaeus was a large extinct marine snake known from Eocene deposits in Mali. A 2018 study described additional fossils and estimated its body length from vertebrae, but the evidence cited in that study does not establish that it hunted sharks or that it lived exactly 56 million years ago.
What the 2018 study found
In 2018, Jacob A. McCartney, Eric M. Roberts, Leif Tapanila, and Maureen A. O’Leary published a study of fossil snakes from Paleogene deposits associated with the Trans-Saharan Seaway in Mali. It described additional material of Palaeophis colossaeus, an extinct marine snake, and characterized it as the largest sea snake known from the Malian seaway during the Eocene. The paper in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica also reports a new large nigerophiid species, Amananulam sanogoi, and a medium-sized snake whose affinities could not be determined.
The authors estimated total length by applying regression to measurements of vertebrae and body size. That is an estimate derived from fossil anatomy, not a measurement of a complete preserved snake. The abstract does not provide a numerical length estimate, so a specific figure should not be attached to the animal on the basis of that summary alone.
Did Palaeophis colossaeus hunt sharks?
That claim is not demonstrated by the evidence described in the study’s abstract. It does not report shark remains inside a snake fossil, bite or tooth marks linking the snake to a shark, or another direct observation of shark predation. A large marine snake and sharks sharing an ancient marine environment would not, by itself, prove that the snake hunted sharks.
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Evidence such as identifiable stomach contents or a fossil association that clearly records predation would support a stronger claim. Without such evidence from a primary source, the responsible conclusion is that shark hunting has not been established—not that it was impossible.
Was it really 56 million years ago?
The study places P. colossaeus in Eocene deposits in Mali, but its abstract does not identify these fossils as exactly 56 million years old or explain a dating basis for that precise age. “Eocene” gives the geological context; it is not, by itself, proof of the headline’s specific date. The exact 56-million-year framing therefore remains unverified by the primary source cited here.
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What the fossils can tell us about ancient snakes
The study’s broader contribution is its account of large snakes from the Trans-Saharan Seaway deposits, including P. colossaeus and A. sanogoi. The authors suggest that large Tethyan snakes may indicate tropical temperatures higher than today’s. That is their interpretation of the fossil evidence, rather than a direct temperature measurement reported for the animals.
The study is a published description of fossil material; it does not, on the evidence cited here, establish a newly made discovery. Its strongest supported conclusions concern the snakes’ fossil occurrence, classification, and vertebra-based size estimation—not a specific shark-hunting event or an exact age of 56 million years.
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