The first specimen of a Blind snake from the Middle Miocene of Western Serbia

Abstract

Here I describe the only remains of a blind snake found so far in the Middle Miocene sediments of the Vračević locality (Western Serbia). The site has been known since the middle of the last century. The first fossil remains from this locality were described by Laskarev in 1948. In the following decades, geological research in the wider area of Vračević collected many different fossil remains of invertebrates and vertebrates. At the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, a significant amount remains of terrestrial molluscs, small mammals, fishes, amphibians, and reptiles were collected in the renewed research of Vračević. On this occasion, the only found vertebra of the blind snake, Scolecophidia, will be described in detail for the first time.