The discovery in Brazil of a fossil snake with four legs, a single specimen suggests that the ancestors of these reptiles were land, not sea, according to a study published Thursday by the journal Science.
The new species, named Tetrapodophis amplectus, lived in the Cretaceous, made between about 146 and 100 million years, and has many physiological traits similar to those of current snakes: short nose, elongated cranial vault, scales, sharp teeth and a very flexible jaw to swallow large prey.
This reptile also had a similar to that of their descendants today that allows extreme necessary to squeeze their prey to drown FLEXIBILITY vertebral body.
The only major difference Tetrapodophis with modern snakes are its four legs that apparently served to move, but to catch prey or mating.
The authors of this study also reveal the absence of the typical long tail of aquatic reptiles such as alligators, thus confronting the hypothesis that snakes do not directly descended from aquatic ancestors.
The researchers analyzed the genetic and morphological characteristics and compared with Tetrapodophis other known species of snakes.
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