A fossil of a part of the snake’s skeleton was found in the area of the village of Orah in Bileca, above the western shore of Lake Bileca, Avaz news portal writes.
The fossil was found in stone in which it appeared after the stone was taken out of the ground and shattered into four pieces.
“On both halves of the fossil, 15 centimeters long, about forty vertebrae with associated ribs can be seen, and another fifteen are hidden along the edge, inside a fragment of the plate,” claims Miro Ilic, an amateur paleontologist.
He says that fossil, as well as living species of snakes, can have from 200 to 400 vertebrae, so it can be estimated that the length of this snake was about 80 centimeters, since the fossil is not complete, it has neither a head nor a tail.
Although nothing can be reliably determined without valid research, Ilic says that the remains of fish and small fragments of carbonized plants can be seen with a magnifying glass on the stone, on the basis of which it is assumed that it was a sea snake.
“Considering the light color and structure of limestone, we can assume that she lived in a healthy environment and did not die, but may have been attacked by a carnivore from the then food chain, where one part of the body was eaten and this one sank. to the seabed, where it is covered with sediment and petrified – adds Ilić.
All this, of course, should be examined in the competent institutes, after which this fossil could join the world-famous fossils of snakes found in the localities of Bileca, the richest in Europe.
“According to the literature, so far four fossils of snakes have been found in Bileca, three of which were found at the beginning of the 20th century and two are in Vienna and one in Sarajevo, and in 2016 a fourth was found in Belgrade,” states Ilic, explaining that this snake fossil, although small and scientifically unprocessed, could be the fifth in a row.
He claims that this is a reptile from the Mesozoic era and as such is the only one in Republika Srpska from that time.
Ilic says that there are large fossil deposits in the Trebinje region as well, and because of its geological genesis and their remains from the Cretaceous period from 66 million to 145 million years in the past.
