37-Million-Year-Old Paradox Snake Emerges as a New Species From a Museum Drawer
A 37-million-year-old snake fossil found at England’s Hordle Cliff sat in the Natural History Museum collection for more than four decades before researchers led by Dr. Georgios Georgalis identified it as a new species, Paradoxophidion richardoweni. The tiny vertebrae suggest an early caenophidian with possible aquatic adaptations and may be the oldest known relative of elephant trunk snakes, offering fresh insight into snake evolution in the British Isles.