The westernmost Asian record of pythonids (Serpentes): the presence ofPythonin a Miocene hominoid locality of Anatolia

Abstract

Pythonids are fascinating extant reptiles comprising exclusively non-venomous Old-World taxa and including some of the largest known snakes (Murphy and Henderson, 1997). Being thermophilous reptiles, they are distributed in tropical and sub-tropical areas in sub-Saharan Africa, southern and southeastern Asia, Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia (Schleip and O’Shea, 2010; Wallach et al., 2014; Head, 2015).