A newly discovered snake species, Hibernophis breithaupti, provides rare insight into the social behaviour of snakes and fills some gaps in our knowledge of the evolution of boas, or boidae. The quartet of fossilized snakes discovered in western Wyoming dates back 38 million years.
The snake specimens were preserved in a cluster within a hibernaculum, a space where animals shelter together during colder months. The position in which the specimens were found "represents social behaviour in snakes, which is something that we don't often see," Michael Caldwell explains. According to Caldwell, a professor in the Faculty of Science, this is the first clear evidence of reptilian social behaviour in the fossil record.
This behaviour also sets this new species apart from other reptiles. Though many mammals hibernate during the winter, only one species of snake is known to follow suit: the garter snake. "This is really unusual for reptiles. Of the almost 15,000 different kinds of reptile species alive today, none of them hibernate in the way that garter snakes do."
