Unusual Snake Fossil with Four Legs
- Unusual Snake Fossil with Four Legs
by Michelle Starr@riding_red, http://www.cnet.com/
The discovery of a fossil of a snake with four legs suggests that the modern-day reptiles evolved from digging, rather than swimming, ancestors.
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What’s the difference between a snake and a lizard? If you answered “legs,” you are now officially dead wrong. A snake fossil with four limbs each ending in five seemingly functional digits has been discovered, bringing with it a new theory as to how modern-day snakes evolved. The research was published today in the journal Science.
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The snake, aptly named Tetrapodophis amplectus, or grasping four-legged snake,was discovered in the Museum Solnhofen in Germany by paleobiologist David Martill of the University of Portsmouth, the UK, while on a field trip with students.
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“The fossil was part of a larger exhibition of fossils from the Cretaceous period,” Martill said in a statement. “It was clear that no one had appreciated its importance, but when I saw it I knew it was an incredibly significant specimen.”
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The fossil was from Brazil and is around 110 million years old. And, although fossils of snakes have been found with legs before, the limbs in question were two useless hind legs. This is the first snake fossil discovered with four legs.
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“It is generally accepted that snakes evolved from lizards at some point in the distant past,” Martill said. “What scientists don’t know yet is when they evolved, why they evolved, and what type of lizard they evolved from. This fossil answers some very important questions, for example it now seems clear to us that snakes evolved from burrowing lizards, not from marine lizards.”
Julius T. Csotonyi
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