Madtsoia

## Madtsoianamed after "Cow Valley"

### Temporal Range

72 - 34 million years ago, Maastrichtian - Priabonian Stage, Late Cretaceous - Late Eocene Period

## Characteristics

### Diet

Carnivore

Kills prey via constriction, much like modern-day pythons (to which it is unrelated to)

***Madtsoia*** (Tehuelche for "Cow Valley", the place it was first found in) is an extinct genus of madtsoiid snake that lived in South America, India, and Madagascar, around 72 - 34 million years ago, from the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period to the Priabonian age of the Late Eocene Period. The species depicted on Prehistoric Planet is *Madtsoia madagascariensis* from the Maevarano Formation in Madagascar.

## Description

*Madtsoia* resembles a modern-day python, though it is unrelated to them. The species shown on Prehistoric Planet, *M. madagascariensis*, was 5.1 - 8 meters (17 - 26 feet) long, and weighed around 50 kilograms (110 pounds).

## Habitat

*Main: Maevarano Formation*

Main: Maevarano Formation

*Madtsoia* lived 72 - 34 million years ago in Madagascar, South America, and India. It (and, by extension, its family) was named after the place where it was first found in, the Cañadón de las Vacas (Valley of the Cows) in the Chubut Province of Argentina, which can be roughly translated as "Mad (Cow) Tsoi (Valley)" in the language of the native Tehuelche people.

The species depicted in the show, *M. madagascariensis*, lived in the Maevarano Formation in the Mahajanga Province of Madagascar. The Maevarano Formation is recognized as an alluvial plain where the discharge of rivers fluctuate. The area is also believed to have had reddish soil, with floodplains that supported vegetation able to grow in the relatively dry climate. The region, at times semi-arid (like it is today), at times undergoing strong dry and wet seasons, was eventually claimed by rising sea levels that pushed the shoreline back. This may or may not have been the result of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event, a catastrophe that wiped out three-quarters of life on Earth. Nevertheless, *Madtsoia* would survive this catastrophe and continue existing for another 32 million years.

## Behavior

***“ Madtsoia, a snake nearly 25 feet long, squeezes its prey to death. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Islands*
*Madtsoia*, like other madtsoiids, is believed to have suffocated its prey by wrapping around them with tight coils, much like the modern constrictor snakes it is believed to be analogous to. Like other snakes, upon eating a sufficiently-sized meal, *Madtsoia* does not need to eat again for a long period of time.

Madtsoiids can be differentiated from extant constrictors by their more primitive jaws, which cannot unhinge to the same extent as modern-day boas and pythons. Hence, small dinosaurs like *Masiakasaurus* would have been the largest prey that *Madtsoia* can tackle.

## Appearance

### Islands

In the fourth segment of Islands, the eye of *Madtsoia* is first seen as a mother *Adalatherium* is out foraging for food at night. The morning after, while a *Masiakasaurus* was looking for prey, nearly coming upon the burrow in which the *Adalatherium's* cubs were sleeping, a *Madtsoia* lunges at the theropod and constricts it to death.

***“ This neighborhood has now become rather dangerous. As night falls, the mother leads her young out of the burrow for the very first time. For now, at least, they must stay close together. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Islands*
Witnessing this, the mother *Adalatherium* deems that the area has become too dangerous, and, by night, moves out of her burrow along with her ten cubs. One of the cubs briefly looks back and finds the *Madtsoia* resting on a fallen tree branch, staring back at it. With this, the *Adalatherium* cub turns back around and continues to follow its mother as they move far away from the area.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) snake assemblage from the Maevarano Formation, Mahajanga Basin, Madagascar