Thanks, Xavier!

U can see from this how deep and thoughtful I am in my texting

This was possible thanks to the incredible team, including @nicolasdipoi.bsky.social, @anniehsiou.bsky.social, @sobralg.bsky.social, and many other not in this social media

Overall, we show that this remarkable story is not linear or simple as previously assumed. It follows a complex trajectory, with Cretaceous snakes already widespread in ecological and neuroanatomical diversity, and more specialized to different environments than the snake ancestral condition

Added to known marine Cretaceous snakes, this shows a wide ecological diversity in the Cretaceous.

Bone microstructure and brain shape analyses independently converge on the ancestral ecology of Tametara (as fossorial) and Dinilysia (as ground dwelling). Further, it shows many independent transitions across habitats during the long history of snake evolution.

But what about the ancestral ecology of this and other stem snakes? Interpreting the ecology of fossil snakes has been a challenge for decades. Fortunately, the brain can tell us a lot about the ecology of an organism. The same with the microstructural profile of the bones of their skull.

Using geometric morphometrics, we found these early snake brains are more different from each other than most living snake species, indicating exceptional disparity of brain shapes early on in snake evolution.

Tametara has an exceptional braincase preservation, allowing us to extract the most detailed brain endocast of a fossil snake to date. We did the same with another early snake, (Dinilysia, from Argentina).

I have been called many names ...