Palaeophiidae
Palaeophiidae is an extinct family of large marine snakes that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Eocene, about 70.6 to 33.9 million years ago. They belong to the animal kingdom, chordates, reptiles, snakes, and the group Acrochordoidea. The family was named by Lydekker in 1888.
Some fossils suggest they were related to the living file snakes (Acrochordidae), but this link is debated and not well supported by later studies.
Fossil evidence, including vertebrae and species like Palaeophis maghrebianus from Morocco, shows they were among the biggest snakes ever known and that they lived in marine environments.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:55 (CET).