0.75" Eocene Fossil Snake Egg - Bouxwiller, France

This is an unusual fossil: a 0.75" Eocene-aged fossil snake egg from Bouxwiller, in the Alsace region of northastern France. It was laid on the bank of a lake during the Eocene period, about 48 to 40 million years ago. The rock formation was exposed in a now abandoned quarry in 1983, and over 44 vertebrate species have been described since then. Eggs are generally difficult to trace to a single species, so this egg is classified as Ophidenovum, a genus parallel to Linnean taxonomy but reserved only for eggs. In this case, Ophidenovum translates from Latin to literally "of snakes (Ophid-)" and "egg (-ovum)".

Scan of the first page of the original paper describing this fauna in 1983 (in French)
Scan of the first page of the original paper describing this fauna in 1983 (in French)


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DETAILS
SPECIES
Ophidenovum sp.
LOCATION
Bouxwiller, Alsace, France
SIZE
Egg: .75" long
ITEM
#293116
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