[Taxacom] four-legged snake fossil

[John Grehan]

Of course without the DNA sequence there is no way to be sure that it
really is a snake (with or without legs). Ah cripes, could not resist the
sarcasm. Sorry. But really nice news item Ken.

John Grehan

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 10:36 PM, Kenneth Kinman <kinman at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,      The recently described fossil snake (with four short legs)
> named Tetrapodophis isn't likely to make the nightly newscast as would a
> feathered dinosaur (or Archaeopteryx), but it is certainly more
> scientifically significant than a feathered velociraptor (which recently
> got more attention from the press).  Its significance isn't because of its
> four somewhat vestigial legs (as might have been expected), but because it
> shows that snakes no doubt evolved from burrowing terrestrial lizards, not
> swimming lizards.  This fossil pretty much solves the debate about a
> burrowing vs. a swmming ancestor for snakes, something which gene
> sequencing couldn't answer.                 ------------Ken
>
> http://www.cnn.com/videos/intl_tv-shows/2015/07/27/four-legged-snake-fossil-found-orig.cnn/video/playlists/terrifying-snakes/
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