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We here describe a monospecific assemblage of giant aquatic snakes from the middle Eocene of Kpogamé, Togo. The material, consisting of large isolated vertebrae, is referred to  Palaeophis africanus , an enigmatic palaeophiid species, which was so far otherwise known only from a limited number of vertebrae from the middle Eocene of Nigeria and Angola. Material from the late Eocene of the eastern USA that had been referred to the same species, is here instead considered too fragmentary for species-level determination and  Palaeophis africanus  is thus so far restricted to Africa. With the aid of micro-CT scanning, we present 3D models of 17 vertebrae, pertaining to different portions of the vertebral column. We provide detailed comparisons of the new material with all named African species of the genus  Palaeophis . A tentative diagnosis of  Palaeophis africanus  is provided. With more than 50 vertebrae, the new Togolese specimens represent the most abundant known material attributed to  Palaeophis africanus  and significantly enhance our knowledge of the vertebral anatomy and intracolumnar variation for this taxon. Furthermore, this adds to the, as yet, extremely scarce fossil record of squamates from central western Africa, a region where Paleogene herpetofaunas are only rather poorly known.

An assemblage of giant aquatic snakes (Serpentes, Palaeophiidae) from the Eocene of Togo