Naja romani

Naja romani is an extinct species of cobra from the Miocene of Europe. Its remains have been found from France to Russia and suggest a continued growth to larger sizes throughout its range in time. While successful during the early and middle stages of the Miocene, the species disappeared from the fossil record of Central Europe during the late Miocene with the last known specimen being recovered from a site in the modern Caucasus, inferred to have been a refuge for reptiles. Estimates suggest that Naja romani may have reached a length of over 2 m.

Naja romani

Vasilyan, D.; Čerňanský, A.; Szyndlar, Z.; Mörs, T. · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NajaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Elapidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elapidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 8.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20 Mya to 5.09 Mya.

Miocene — about 12 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.9–9.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.4–8.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.8–8.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.3–7.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.8–7.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.2–6.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.2–5.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.7–5.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.1–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15.98 Mya7.246 Mya20.5 Mya4.6 Mya

12 occurrences of Naja romani on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Grund — 48.63°N, 16.06°EEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°ENea Messimvria — 40.77°N, 22.79°E

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The named rock units Naja romani has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Naja romani and its relatives

Miocene

Where Naja romani and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

318 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Naja romani, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

11 references

Each of the 12 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Naja romani

Credit
Vasilyan, D.; Čerňanský, A.; Szyndlar, Z.; Mörs, T.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNaja through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hoffstetter 1939