Linnaean Snakes: Part I

Although recent findings have shed new light on the (so far) oldest-known fossil snakes, extending the fossil record of snakes back in time an incredible 70 million years, this article is about a more anthropocentric definition of “the first snakes”. It’s about the first snakes to be named and described using the modern system of classification: those described and classified by Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, using consistently together for the first time a binomial naming system for genera and species and a hierarchical category system for higher taxa (i.e., families, orders, classes, phyla, and kingdoms). Leer más.