Najash

Najash is a basal snake from the Late Cretaceous Candeleros Formation of Patagonia.[1] Like a number of other Cretaceous and living snakes it retained hindlimbs, but Najash is unusual in having well-developed legs that extend outside the rib cage, and a pelvis connected to the spine. Fossils of Najash were found in the terrestrial Candeleros Formation, in Rio Negro Province, Argentina, and date to roughly 90 million years ago. The skull and spine of Najash show primitive features that resemble other Cretaceous snakes, such as Dinilysia and Madtsoiidae.[2] Also, several characteristicts of the neck and tail of Najash and Dinilysia show how the body plan of snakes evolved from a lizard-like ancestor.[3]

Najash had not lost its sacrum, the pelvic bone composed of several fused vertebrae, nor its pelvic girdle which are absent in modern snakes, and in all other known fossil snakes as well.[4] Nearly all phylogenetic analysis place Najash as an early shoot of the snake tree, outside of all living snakes.[1][2][3][5]

The generic name comes from the biblical legged snake of Genesis, Nahash, who tempted Adam and Eve to eat from a forbidden fruit tree.