WASHINGTON — Snakes have been slithering on Earth far longer than anyone ever realized. Scientists on Tuesday described the four oldest-known snake fossils, the most ancient of which was a roughly 10-inch-long (25 cm) reptile called Eophis underwoodi unearthed in a quarry near Oxford, England, that lived about 167 million years ago. The remarkable fossils from Britain, Portugal and the United States rewrite the history of snake evolution, pushing back snake origins by tens of millions of years. Until now, the oldest snake fossil dated from about 102 million years ago, said University of Alberta paleontologist Michael Caldwell, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications. The four snakes lived during the age of dinosaurs. Eophis, the oldest, was a swamp dweller. The largest, named Portugalophis lignites and discovered in a coal mine in central Portugal, measured about 4 feet (1.2 meters) and was 155 million years old. Diablophis gilmorei, a snake from about 155 million years ago, was found in western Colorado. It was a bit larger than Eophis. — Reuters
