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To: metmom
It specifcally mentions cattle and beasts of the earth. It says creeping things but does not specifically mention anything like lizard or serpent. That's open to interpretation. Where do snakes fit in? Are they reptiles that lost their lega or did they come first and legs develop later? Or is there no good fossil record of this? I imagine that snake skeletons are pretty fragile.

Snakes are indeed a fragile specimen when it comes to preserving their skeletons. They have no prominent skeletal system beyond the vertebra. Their ribs are very delicate. And as their skulls are held together by muscles and ligaments, which is what allows it to be flexible enough to allow the snake to swallow its prey whole, they tend to fall apart rapidly upon death. This certainly means a frustratingly patchy fossil record of their ancestry.

However, enough is known from the snake fossils that do exist to give a good idea of their general development. A good summary of this can be found here.

The exact lineage of the earliest snakes is a subject of debate. However, a common point among possible theories is that they originally evolved either directly from early lizards or shared a close common ancestor to them. Some features of living snakes, such as boas and pythons, strongly support this; the boa's anal spurs and trace remnants of hips and limbs, for instance.

97 posted on 11/04/2005 10:42:12 AM PST by Antonello
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To: Antonello

"Snakes are indeed a fragile specimen when it comes to preserving their skeletons. "




I hunted deer on a man's ranch in Wyoming. He invited all the hunters on his property to a barbeque on opening day. He had an enormous fireplace made of stone. Over the mantel was a 10' long fossil of a snake, still in the matrix. It was amazing.


99 posted on 11/04/2005 10:50:00 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Antonello

Actually, there is a fossil of a snake with legs. It was written up in 2000. Here's a link to a page, describing it:

http://www.karencarr.com/News/legs/legged_snake.htm


101 posted on 11/04/2005 10:52:03 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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