evolution of snake

The evolution of snakes is a subject that keeps several questions unanswered. Much has been studied about its evolution, but the lack of prehistoric pieces makes research a little more difficult, since it is worth mentioning that the bones of skulls and some body parts are fragile and disintegrate quickly. What can be affirmed is that they belong to the genus Ophidia, from which several extinct subgroups emerge, Serpentes being the only one that survives.

Fossils found from prehistoric snakes show that they had small hind limbs. Scientists have tried to verify whether thousands or millions of years ago these reptiles were morphologically very different from what we see today.

Current Pythons and Boas still retain vestiges of such hind legs now known as anal spurs used for mating. A very strange fact is that no vestiges of forelegs have been found in any existing species.

The scientists suppose that the loss of limbs was due to a better adaptation of the body to move on paved grounds. The multiple scales that surround your body protect them from harmful elements and apart they grant them an easy mobility, to such an extent to make the extremities something unnecessary.

Another question that is tried to solve, is if the snakes come from terrestrial or aquatic species, since at present they inhabit in both ecosystems, reason why it is not known for certain if the marine ones arose in terrestrial surroundings, or the other way around.

A prevailing theory states that modern snakes evolved from aquatic lizards in the mid-Cretaceous period. 112 million years old have the oldest fossils known to date, located in Utah, the United States, and Algeria, Africa.

The mosasaurs were long marine reptiles that are now extinct. The reconstruction of its external appearance results in a long animal with a tail that finishes in tip and fins to propel itself underwater. The American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, said that mosasaurs are close ancestors of snakes, but this was questioned the decade of the 90's by other scientists who made new discoveries.

Pachyrhachis was a genus of snakes, also extinct, from which it was concluded that they had well-developed hind legs and were very similar morphologically to marine snakes. They were found in Ein Yabrud, a town in Palestine.