Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:55:00.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Sea-Serpentism

from Part II - Palaeontology and the Marine-Origin Hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2022

By
Olivier Rieppel
Edited by
David J. Gower  and
Hussam Zaher
David J. Gower
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, London
Hussam Zaher
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo
Get access

Summary

Sea-serpent sightings were popular subjects of nineteenth century fictional tales. One of the most famous sightings, the 1817 appearance in the harbor of Gloucester (Massachusetts), generated a report published by the Linnean Society of New England. In 1869, ED Cope introduced a new reptilian order, Pythonomorpha, comprising large Upper Cretaceous marine lizards (mosasaurs) that he thought rather well captured in historical depictions of sea-serpents. The name Pythonomorpha emphasized the many striking features that Cope found mosasaurs to share with snakes. Cope’s Pythonomorpha was resurrected in the late 1990s, as a clade including mosasaurs plus snakes. This was supported by the placement of mid-Cretaceous marine snakes with well-developed hindlimbs as evolutionarily intermediate between mosasauroids and snakes. Critics pointed to features indicating that those fossil snakes are instead evolutionarily advanced, which would imply that hindlimbs of these fossil snakes re-developed from rudiments such as occur in pythons. Recent molecular developmental studies confirmed that the embryonic limb bud of the python hindlimb conserves the genetic program to generate a complete limb.

Keywords

sea serpentshistorysnakesmarinelimblessnessPythonomorphamosasaursfossilsdevelopmentcryptozoology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes , pp. 113 - 124
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Westrum, R.. Knowledge about sea-serpents. In Wallis, R., ed., On the Margins of Science: The Social Construction of Rejected Knowledge (Staffordshire: University of Keele, 1979), pp. 293–314.Google Scholar
Nigg, J., Sea Monsters . A Voyage around the World’s Most Beguiling Map (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Lee, H., Sea Monsters Unmasked (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1883).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pontoppidan, E., The Natural History of Norway (London: A. Linde, 1755).Google Scholar
Oudemans, A. C., The Great Sea-Serpent. An Historical and Critical Treatise (Leiden: J. Brill, 1892).Google Scholar
Gesner, C., Historia Animalium, liber IV, qui est de piscium & aquatilium animantium natura (Zürich: Christoph Froschauer, 1558).Google Scholar
Loxton, D. and Prothero, D. R., Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Olearius, A., Gottorffische Kunst-Cammer. (Schleswig: J. Holwein)Google Scholar
Rieppel, L., Albert Koch’s Hydrarchos craze. In Berkowitz, C., Lightman, B., eds., Science Museums in Transition (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017), pp. 139–160.Google Scholar
Hoaxes, L. Rieppel, Humbugs, and frauds. Distinguishing truth from untruth in early America. Journal of the Early Republic, 38 (2018), 501–529.Google Scholar
Rafinesque, C. S., Dissertation on Water Snakes, Sea Snakes, and Sea Serpents. American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, 1 (1817), 431–435.Google Scholar
Anonymous, Report of a Committee of the Linnean Society of New England, relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August 1817 (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817).Google Scholar
Peck, W., Some observations on the Sea Serpent. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 4 (1818), 86–91.Google Scholar
Lyell, C., A Second Visit to the United States of North America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849).Google Scholar
Gould, R. T., The Case for the Sea-Serpent (London: Philip Allan, 1930).Google Scholar
Owen, R., A History of British Fossil Reptiles (London: Cassell & Co, 1849–1884).Google Scholar
Blainville, H. d., Sur un nouveau genre de Serpent, Scoliophis, et le serpent de mer vu en Amérique en 1817. Journal de Physique, de Chimie, et d’Histoire Naturelle, 86 (1818), 297–304.Google Scholar
Lesueur, A., Sur le serpent nommé Scoliophis. Journal de Physique, de Chimie, et d’Histoire Naturelle, 86 (1818), 466–469.Google Scholar
Buckland, F., Notes and Jottings from Animal Life (London: Smith Elder, 1886).Google Scholar
Anonymous, The Great Sea-Serpent. Nature, 47 (1893), 506–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cope, E. D., On the reptilian orders, Pythonomorpha and Streptosauria. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 12 (1869), 250–266.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D., Synopsis of the extinct Batrachia, Reptilia and Aves of North America. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, ns, 14 (1871), 1-252, i-xxxiii.Google Scholar
Mulder, E. W. A., Transatlantic latest Cretaceous mosasaurs (Reptilia Lacertilia) from the Maastrichtian type area and New Jersey. Netherland Journal of Geosciences – Geologie en Mijnbouw, 78 (1999), 281–300.Google Scholar
Bardet, N. and Jagt, J. W. M., Mosasaurus hoffmanni, le ‘Grand Animal fossile des Carrières de Maestricht’: deux siècles d’histoire. Bulletin du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 4ème série – section C – Sciences de La Terre, Paléontologie, Géologie, Minéralogie, 18 (1996), 569–593.Google Scholar
Grigoriev, D. V., Giant Mosasaurus hoffmanni (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Penza, Russia. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 318 (2014), 148–167.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D., Professor Owen on the Pythonomorpha. Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 4 (1878), 299–311.Google Scholar
Owen, R., On the rank and affinities in the reptilian class of the Mosasauridae, Gervais. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 33 (1877), 682–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shine, R., The serpent world. Science, 277 (1997), 1945–1946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, M. W. and Lee, M. S. Y., A snake with legs from the marine Cretaceous of the Middle East. Nature, 386 (1997), 705–709.Google Scholar
Lee, M. S. Y. and Caldwell, M. W., Anatomy and relationships of Pachyrhachis problematicus, a primitive snake with hindlimbs. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 353 (1998), 1521–1552.Google Scholar
Carroll, R. L., Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1988).Google Scholar
Gauthier, J., Kearney, M., Maisano, J. A. et al., Assembling the squamate tree of life: Perspectives from the phenotype and the fossil record. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 53 (2012), 3–308.Google Scholar
Lee, M. S. Y., Bell, G. L., and Caldwell, M. W., The origin of snake feeding. Nature, 400 (1999), 655–659.Google Scholar
Zaher, H., The phylogenetic position of Pachyrhachis within snakes (Squamata, Lepidosauria). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 18 (1998), 1–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rieppel, O., Zaher, H., Tchernov, E., and Polcyn, M. J., The anatomy and relationships of Haasiophis terrasanctus, a fossil snake with well-developed hind limbs from the Mid-Cretaceous of the Middle East. Journal of Paleontology, 77 (2003), 536–558.Google Scholar
Tchernov, E., Rieppel, O., Zaher, H., et al., A fossil snake with limbs. Science, 287 (2000), 2010–2012.Google Scholar
Rage, J.-C. and Escuillié, F., Un nouveau serpent bipède du Cénomanien (Crétacé). Implications phylétiques. Comptes Rendus de l’ Académie des Sciences Paris, Earth and Planetary Science , 330 (2000), 513–520.Google Scholar
Rage, J.-C. and Escuillié, F., The Cenomanian: stage of hindlimbed snakes. Carnets Geologiques, 2003/01 (2003), 1–11.Google Scholar
Zaher, H. and Rieppel, O., The phylogenetic relationships of Pachyrhachis problematicus, and the evolution of limblessness in snakes (Lepidosauria, Squamata). Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris (Série IIA), Earth and Planetary Science, 329 (1999), 831–837.Google Scholar
Cohn, M. J. and Tickle, C., Developmental basis of limblessness and axial patterning in snakes. Nature, 399 (1999), 474–479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanger, T. J. and Gibson-Brown, J. J., The developmental bases of limb reduction and body elongation in squamates. Evolution, 58 (2004), 2103–2106.Google Scholar
Woltering, J. M., Vonk, F. J., Muller, H., et al., Axial patterning in snakes and caecilians: evidence for an alternative interpretation of the Hox code. Developmental Biology, 332 (2009), 82–89.Google Scholar
Tsuihiji, T., Kearney, M., and Rieppel, O., Finding the neck-trunk boundary in snakes: anteoposterior dissociation of myological characteristics in snakes and its implications for their neck and trunk body regionalization. Journal of Morphology, 273 (2012), 992–1009.Google Scholar
Head, J. J. and Polly, P. D., Evolution of the snake body form reveals homoplasy in amniote Hox gene function. Nature, 520 (2015), 86–89.Google Scholar
Martill, D. M., Tischlinger, H., and Longrich, N. R., A four-legged snake from the Early Cretaceous of Gondwana. Science, 349 (2015), 416–419.Google Scholar
Leal, F. and Cohn, M. J., Loss and re-emergence of legs in snakes by modular evolution of sonic hedgehog and HOXD enhancers. Current Biology, 26 (2016), 2966–2973.Google Scholar
Shubin, N. and Alberch, P., A morphogenetic approach to the origin and basic organization of the tetrapod limb. Evolutionary Biology, 20 (1986), 319–387.Google Scholar
Leal, F. and Cohn, M. J., Developmental, genetic and genomic insights into the evolutionary loss of limbs in snakes. The Journal of Genetics and Development, 56 (2018), e23077.Google ScholarPubMed
Wiens, J. J., Brandley, M. C., and Reeder, T. W., Why does a trait evolve multiple times within a clade? Repeated evolution of snakelike body form in squamate reptiles. Evolution, 60 (2006), 123–141.Google Scholar
Caldwell, M. W., The Origin of Snakes: Morphology and the Fossil Record (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2020).Google Scholar
Rieppel, O. and Zaher, H., Re-building the bridge between mosasaurs and snakes. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 221 (2001), 111–132.Google Scholar
Wiens, J. J., Hutter, C. R., Mulcahy, D. G., et al., Resolving the phylogeny of lizards and snakes (Squamata) with extensive sampling of genes and species. Biology Letters, 8 (2012), 1043–1046.Google Scholar
Streicher, J. W. and Wiens, J. J., Phylogenomic analyses of more than 4000 loci resolve the origin of snakes among lizard families. Biology Letters, 13 (2017), 20170393.Google Scholar
Burbrink, F. T., Grazziotin, F. G., Pyron, R. A., et al., Interrogating genomic-scale data for Squamata (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) shows no support for key traditional morphological relationships. Systematic Biology, 69 (2020), 502–520.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×