A puzzling new snake (Reptilia: Serpentes) from the Late Paleocene of Mississippi

A puzzling new genus and species of primitive alethinophidian snake, Tuscahomaophis leggetti, is described on the basis of vertebrae from the late Paleocene Tuscahoma Formation of Meridian, Mississippi.Tuscahomaophis has characters on the centrum, condyle, hypapophysis, neural arch, and prezygapophyses that indicate relationships to the Palaeophiidae and, to a lesser extent, the Nigerophiidae and distinguish it from other primitive alethinophidians.But Tuscahomaophis differs from the above two families in the location of the paradiapophyses, characters on the ventral centrum and neural arch, and in having parazygantral foramina that occur in small fossae.Curiously, the parazygantral character is unique to the Madtsoiidae (and one other undescribed snake) and is considered to be apomorphic in each of these taxa.At present it seems best to suggest that Tuscahomaophis is a sister group of the Palaeophiidae, that the Nigerophiidae is a sister group to both of the former; and that Tuscahomaophis has independently developed the parazygantral character of the Madtsoiidae.The new snake is assigned to the suborder Alethinophidia, family incertae sedis.Tuscahomaophis may have been an aquatic snake that occupied a riverine or an estuarine habitat.