Parapalaeophis jeffshawi: Vertebrae and Morphometric Data for a Paleocene Aquatic Snake

Abhishek Natarajan's dataset contains the holotype vertebrae and morphometric data for Parapalaeophis jeffshawi, a new genus and species of aquatic snake. The data includes seven associated vertebrae from the Paleocene Porters Creek Formation in Alabama, U.S.A., and 2D landmark-based geometric morphometric analyses. The dataset was last updated on May 22, 2026, and is licensed under CC-BY-4.0.

Use Cases

• Conducting comparative morphometric analyses based on the 2D landmark data for related snake families.
• Studying vertebral adaptations for an aquatic lifestyle based on the described morphological characters.
• Estimating body size in extinct snakes using the provided regression of vertebral lengths on body size.
• Analyzing the morphological mosaic and diversity of Paleogene aquatic snakes based on the described unique character combination.

Strengths

• Includes the holotype specimen, comprising seven closely associated vertebrae.
• Provides a body length estimate of 1.94 ± 0.14 meters derived from a regression analysis.
• Data is openly available under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small (1.3 MB), limiting the scope of analysis.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Abhishek Natarajan.

Collection Method

Likely contains data from fossil description and geometric morphometric analysis.

Time Range

Paleocene (upper Danian), approximately 61-66 million years ago.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 09:54:56; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Porters Creek Formation, Alabama, U.S.A.