The first four-legged snake stone fossil ever found is urging scientists to rethink the concept of how snakes evolved from lizards. Snakes are known to be terrifying creatures. Mighty creatures who 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 long, scientists were puzzled as to how snakes lost their legs and there definitely wasn’t enough evidence coming along. Now it has been discovered that modern day snakes have evolved from this 120 million year old snake that had four legs. The newly discovered snake has been named as Tetrapodophis amplectus, which literally translates to four-legged snake.
Traits Unique To The Four Legged Snake
The four legged snake was different from most of the snakes that we see today. One interesting discovery from the snake stone fossil however, 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 techniques for killing, and these techniques are similar to the ones used by modern day snakes that use constriction as well as biting.
Evolution
According to research, the four-legged snakes evolved from creatures that used to live in burrows in the ground and it seems that these ancestral creatures used their legs for the sole purpose of digging these burrows. This is one of the prime examples of the transitional phase where lizards were evolved into the modern day snakes that we see today. This discovery of the four legged snakes has given us a better insight into the evolution that modern day snakes went through.
Post: Subhajit
Edited By: The Icy Tales Editorial Board
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