Scientists Found a Rare Fossil Showing Snakes Once Had Legs and Looked Very Different From Today
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- A nearly 100-million-year-old fossil of Najash rionegrina found in Argentina reveals that early snakes still had hind limbs and retained skull bones missing in modern snakes, indicating a gradual limb reduction process.
- The fossil's well-preserved jugal (cheek) bone corrects over a century of misunderstanding about snake skull anatomy, providing new insights into the evolutionary changes in snake and lizard skulls.
- Micro-CT scans allowed researchers to study hidden details in the fossilized skull, uncovering nerve and blood vessel pathways and clarifying how skull bones were lost or reduced over time.
- The findings challenge previous beliefs that early snakes were small burrowing animals, suggesting instead that their ancestors were larger-bodied with wide mouths and retained hind limbs longer before becoming fully limbless.
