A 67 million years old SNAKE preyed on dinosaur hatchlings

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A 67-million-year-old fossil of a gigantic snake found coiled around a dinosaur egg in the village of Dholi Dungri in Virpur taluka in Gujarat’s Kheda district has helped an international paleontological team led by the University of Michigan’s Jeff Wilson and Geological Survey of India’s Dhananjay Mohabey to confirm this unusual feeding behaviour.

The snake did not eat fully-grown sauropods, it preyed on dinosaurs just as they were hatching from eggs. It coiled around the prey to kill and swallow it.

“It’s a chance to understand the biology and early anatomy,” said Jeffrey A. Wilson, the paper’s lead author and a paleontologist at the University of Michigan. “The really important thing is that it’s actually caught in the fossil record showing what its doing.”

The study is significant as the nearly complete remains of the snake — preserved in a nest of a sauropod along with a half-metre-long dinosaur hatchling lying next to the snake and two unbroken eggs — is unequivocal evidence of its eating behavior.
One of the most important features that enable macrostomatans to prey on animals bigger than a deer is their wide gap. Fully grown pythons have excellent jaw adaptations and elongated skulls that give them a gape as wide as 60 cm.