{{Short description|Extinct genus of snake}} {{Speciesbox | fossil_range = {{Geological_age|70.6|66.043|Maastrichtian}} | image = Nidophis vertebrae.jpg | image_caption = ''Nidophis insularis'' vertebrae (scale bar 1 mm) | genus = Nidophis | species = insularis | authority = Vasile ''et al.'', 2013 }}
'''''Nidophis''''' is an extinct genus of madtsoiid snake that inhabited on Hațeg island in what is now Romania. The type and only known species of the genus is '''''N. insularis'''''. The holotype was closely associated with the dinosaur egg nest,<ref name="Venczel-2013">{{CiteQ|Q29997837}}</ref> though it may not have been a nest raider. Instead, the small size of ''Nidophis'' would have allowed it to eat amphibians, lizards, multituberculates or squamate eggs. ''Nidophis'' was probably preyed upon or scavenged by a theropod dinosaur or a crocodylomorph, based on bite marks found on its bones.<ref name="Venczel-2015">{{cite journal|first1=Márton|last1=Venczel|first2=Ştefan|last2=Vasile|first3=Zoltán|last3=Csiki-Sava|year=2015|title=A Late Cretaceous madtsoiid snake from Romania associated with a megaloolithid egg nest – Paleoecological inferences|journal=Cretaceous Research|volume=55|pages=152–163|doi=10.1016/j.cretres.2015.02.009}}</ref>
== Discovery and naming == The holotype of ''Nidophis insularis'' is a well-preserved mid-trunk vertebra, with only the posterolateral margins of the left postzygapophysis broken off. The genus name ''Nidophis'' is a portmanteau of the Latin word ''nidus'' ("nest"), referring to its discovery associated with a dinosaur nest, and the Ancient Greek word ''ὄφις'' (''ophis'', "serpent"). The specific name ''insularis'' is a Latin word alluding to the probable island occurrence of this taxon.<ref name="Venczel-2013" />
== Paleoenvironment == The holotype of ''Nidophis insularis'' is found in the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) continental deposits of the Hațeg Basin, western Romania.<ref name="Venczel-2013" /> Today Haţeg is a landlocked town in Romania, but 70 million years ago during the late Cretaceous it was an island within a shallow sea that covered much of today's southern Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weishampel |first=D. B. |last2=Jianu |first2=C.-M. |date=1996-07-31 |title=New Theropod Dinosaur Material from the Haţeg Basin (Late Cretaceous, Western Romania) |url=https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/200/1996/387 |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen |volume=200 |issue=3 |pages=387–404 |doi=10.1127/njgpa/200/1996/387 |issn=0077-7749|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Based upon the study of paleosols (fossilised soils) the climate is thought to have been sub-tropical with distinct wet and dry seasons,<ref>Van Itterbeeck, J., Sasaran, E., Codrea, V., Sasaran, L., and Bultynck, P. 2004. Sedimentology of the Upper Cretaceous mammal- and dinosaur-bearing sites along the Râul Mare and Bãrbat rivers, Haþeg Basin, Romania. ''Cretaceous Research'' 25, 517-530.</ref> carbon isotopes indicate "dry woodland" conditions,<ref>Bojar, A.V., Grigorescu, D., Ottner, F., and Csiki, Z. 2005. Palaeoenvironmental interpretation of dinosaur- and mammal-bearing continental Maastrichtian deposits, Haţeg basin, Romania. ''Geological Quarterly'' 49, 205-222.</ref> and oxygen isotopes suggests a mean annual temperature of about 20-25 °C. Rainfall estimates differ according to whether they are based upon plant fossils or palaeosols. Palaeosols indicate that the climate had seasonal precipitation of less than 1000 mm/year, with greater evapotranspiration than precipitation and a fluctuating water table.<ref>Therrien, F. 2005. Paleoenvironments of the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) dinosaurs of Romania: insights from fluvial deposits and paleosols of the Transylvanian and Haþeg basins. ''Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology'' 218, 15-56.</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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Category:Fossil taxa described in 2013 Category:Cretaceous snakes Category:Late Cretaceous reptiles of Europe Category:Maastrichtian life Category:Hațeg fauna