Snake fossil with hidden legs discovered

Feb 09, 2011 |

Washington

Scientists have discovered what they say is a 95-million-year-old fossilised snake which has two tiny leg bones attached to its pelvis.
A three-dimensional reconstruction of the bones could help understand how snakes evolved to lose their legs, said the researchers who made the discovery in Lebanon.

They believe the fossil of the slithery creature is from an era when snakes had not yet completely lost the hind limbs left by their lizard ancestors, LiveScience reported.
The new finding, the researchers said, will answer the much-debated question among paleontologists that whether these leggy ancestors were ocean-living swimmers or land-dwelling burrowing lizards. One-inch-long fossilised leg bone is visible on the surface of the fossilised Lebanese snake, but half the pelvis (where another leg would be expected) is buried in rock. The 19-inch-long snake, called Eupodophis descouensi, is one of only three snake fossils with its hind limbs preserved, so breaking it open to look for the other leg was out of the question. —PTI

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