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Two-Legged Fossil Indicates Snakes Evolved on Land
FoxNews.com ^
| April 19, 2006
Posted on 04/19/2006 1:23:44 PM PDT by mlc9852
NEW YORK — A new fossil discovery has revealed the most primitive snake known, a crawling creature with two legs, and it provides new evidence that snakes evolved on land rather than in the sea.
Snakes are thought to have evolved from four-legged lizards, losing their legs over time. But scientists have long debated whether those ancestral lizards were land-based or marine creatures.
The new find reveals a snake that lived in the Patagonia region of Argentina some 90 million years ago, said Hussam Zaher of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, who describes the find in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Its size is unknown, but it wasn't more than 3 feet long, he said in a telephone interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: crevolist
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1
posted on
04/19/2006 1:23:49 PM PDT
by
mlc9852
To: mlc9852
Fish moved from the water to the land, snakes from the land to planes. :)
To: Tijeras_Slim
Until they met St. Patrick.....or something like that.
[takes meds and goes back to sleep]
To: mlc9852
Are these the same guys that say the earth is getting warmer?
4
posted on
04/19/2006 1:26:29 PM PDT
by
takeemout
(God Bless Jesse Helms!)
To: mlc9852
...a (snakelike) crawling creature with two legs....
Sounds like Jim Carville.
5
posted on
04/19/2006 1:27:21 PM PDT
by
GunsareOK
To: mlc9852
Tell the truth, you're starting to warm up to this whole evolution thing, aren't you? :-)
6
posted on
04/19/2006 1:28:48 PM PDT
by
Chiapet
(I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me)
To: mlc9852
a crawling creature with two legs... Trial lawyers?
7
posted on
04/19/2006 1:28:48 PM PDT
by
Doomonyou
(FR doesn't suffer fools lightly.)
To: mlc9852
Can't believe a Helen Thomas pick hasn't been posted yet, she comes to mind when you mention a 2 legged fossilized snake...
8
posted on
04/19/2006 1:29:18 PM PDT
by
Abathar
(Proudly catching hell for posting without reading since 2004)
To: mlc9852
Modern pythons still have the remains of these legs in the form of vestigial leg spurs.
Here is a picture of a Ball python's leg spurs (used with permission: MBaumeister's ball python Peton)
9
posted on
04/19/2006 1:29:37 PM PDT
by
spetznaz
(Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
To: takeemout
> Are these the same guys that say the earth is getting warmer?
What, the snakes?
PS: The earth *is* getting warmer. Has been generally since the end of the Little Ice Age in the mid/late 19th century.
10
posted on
04/19/2006 1:29:43 PM PDT
by
orionblamblam
(I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
To: mlc9852
11
posted on
04/19/2006 1:29:53 PM PDT
by
Mamzelle
To: Doomonyou
Argh. You beat me to it. And I thought with 7 posts I had a chance...
12
posted on
04/19/2006 1:30:40 PM PDT
by
Mamzelle
To: mlc9852
13
posted on
04/19/2006 1:31:43 PM PDT
by
DonGrafico
(Press '2' for English)
To: mlc9852
Interesting.
Another indication snakes may have evolved on land from a burrowing predecessor is the focal process in the snakes' eye.
Snakes which have eyes which are functional (some small, burrowing snakes have eyes which probably only detect light and darkness) use a method of focusing their lens which is different from that of all other vertebrates, including other reptiles.
All other vertebrates focus their eyes by changing the shape of the retina and using eye muscles to do so. Snakes focus their eyes not by changing the shape of the retina, but by moving the lens closer or further from the retina.
The theory is that since the ancestor of the snakes was a burrowing lizard, it was on the way to losing its eyesight totally. When a purely fossorial existence was abandoned for life on the surface, the snake ancestor had already lost the ability to focus in the customary manner, and adopted this alternate procedure.
14
posted on
04/19/2006 1:32:14 PM PDT
by
ZULU
(Non nobis, non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
To: takeemout
15
posted on
04/19/2006 1:32:33 PM PDT
by
ZULU
(Non nobis, non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
To: mlc9852
Snake transport mechanism still fascinates me and I have never quite been able to figure out how they do it.
16
posted on
04/19/2006 1:32:55 PM PDT
by
capt. norm
(W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
To: mlc9852
A two legged fossil of a snake????....Lawd'ave mercy not another Ted Kennedy story for the love of Pete.
17
posted on
04/19/2006 1:33:09 PM PDT
by
iluvlucy
(swim the Tiber, the water is fine)
To: orionblamblam
No, the "scientists." And to the contrary there is much evidence to suggest it is not.
18
posted on
04/19/2006 1:33:10 PM PDT
by
takeemout
(God Bless Jesse Helms!)
To: GunsareOK
Actually, he related to that character in The Lord of the Rings - Gollum.
19
posted on
04/19/2006 1:33:21 PM PDT
by
ZULU
(Non nobis, non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
To: Mamzelle
I'm surprised it lasted 7 posts!
20
posted on
04/19/2006 1:33:21 PM PDT
by
Doomonyou
(FR doesn't suffer fools lightly.)
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