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Description
Booidean snakes were quite common in the warm open forests of Oligocene Europe, particularly the Viridiopythonids. These relatively large snakes were ambush hunting constrictors measuring up to 2m long and fed on small mammals, birds, lizards and other snakes. The genus Tarnophis was on the smaller end of the size spectrum at only 1.2m and was an arboreal predator, being somewhat analogous to the tree boas of Our World. These snakes went on to great success in the Miocene of Europe, but began to decline once the regions they called home began to change to dry open savanna by the end of the period. By the Holocene, these arboreal animals can still be found in tropical forest ecosystems in Central and Western Africa. Most living forms are cryptically coloured, with either greenish or brownish scales with lighter horizontal patterns running along the body, so it is likely that the extinct Tarnophis was similar.

Description
Booidean snakes were quite common in the warm open forests of Oligocene Europe, particularly the Viridiopythonids. These relatively large snakes were ambush hunting constrictors measuring up to 2m long and fed on small mammals, birds, lizards and other snakes. The genus Tarnophis was on the smaller end of the size spectrum at only 1.2m and was an arboreal predator, being somewhat analogous to the tree boas of Our World. These snakes went on to great success in the Miocene of Europe, but began to decline once the regions they called home began to change to dry open savanna by the end of the period. By the Holocene, these arboreal animals can still be found in tropical forest ecosystems in Central and Western Africa. Most living forms are cryptically coloured, with either greenish or brownish scales with lighter horizontal patterns running along the body, so it is likely that the extinct Tarnophis was similar.