''Eoconstrictor'' is an extinct genus of

boid The Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific Islands. Boas include some of the world's largest snakes, with the green anaconda ...

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

, which supposedly had

infrared vision Infrared vision is the capability of biological or artificial systems to detect infrared radiation. The terms thermal vision and thermal imaging, are also commonly used in this context since infrared emissions from a body are directly related to th ...

, from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

( Messel Pit). The type species, ''E. fischeri'' is known from multiple well-preserved specimens found in the Messel Pit of Germany. It was originally named as ''

Palaeopython ''Palaeopython'' is an extinct genus of snake from the Eocene of Europe. The genus has been used to refer to large Western and Central European snake vertebrae from the Eocene. ''P. cadurcensis'' (the type species, originally named as a species o ...

fischeri'' by Stephan Schaal in 2004, but examination of the genus showed that it represented a distinct lineage; it was renamed as the new

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Eoconstrictor'' in 2020.

References

Boidae Eocene snakes Fossils of Germany Fossil taxa described in 2020 Prehistoric reptile genera {{paleo-reptile-stub