The first four-legged snake stone fossil ever found urges scientists to rethink how snakes evolved from lizards. Snakes are known to be terrifying creatures. Mighty creatures only use their body for movement, but researchers have found the fossils of the oldest snake, and it is said to have had four legs. For a long, scientists were puzzled as to how snakes lost their legs, and there wasn’t enough evidence coming along. The modern-day snakes are an evolutionary form of 120 million-year-old snakes with four legs. The newly discovered snake has been named Tetrapodophis amplectus, which translates to the four-legged snake.
Traits Unique To The Four-Legged Snake
The four-legged snake was different from most of the snakes we see today. However, one exciting discovery from the snake stone fossil is that it did not use its legs to move around just like any other snake in today’s world and relied on its slippery hold on the ground for movement. The four-legged snakes used various killing techniques similar to the ones used by modern-day snakes that use constriction and biting.
Evolution
According to research, the four-legged snakes evolved from creatures that used to live in caves in the ground, and it seems that these ancestral creatures used their legs to dig these burrows. This discovery of the four-legged snakes has given us a better insight into modern-day snakes’ evolution.
Post: Subhajit
Edited By: The Icy Tales Editorial Board
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