Moontanman Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 An ancient snake shows some leg Snakes are classified by scientists as limbless squamates (an order that also includes lizards). But nearly 100 million years ago relatives of modern snakes undulated through Cretaceous period waters aided by a paddlelike tail and dragging a pair of short, footless hind legs. http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=11CD480D-E7A6-7DCF-73A60B9B04557531&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_TECH_20110215 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc. Josh Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 nice, well i have snakes and they have (spurs) ive heard that is the remnants of ancient (legs) on snakes. But never looked up weather or not it was true, from what i found out it's used to mate somehow. But if the snake was so altered in evolution then can it be classified as a lizard? Or snake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 (edited) nice, well i have snakes and they have (spurs) ive heard that is the remnants of ancient (legs) on snakes. But never looked up weather or not it was true, from what i found out it's used to mate somehow. But if the snake was so altered in evolution then can it be classified as a lizard? Or snake? What species of Snake do you have? I always liked red tail boas but raising two boys in what is reptile central here in SENC we have collected and kept many snakes, chain snakes, black racers, mud snakes, copperheads, cotton mouths, and one pygmy rattler but my all time favorite snake was a Scarlet King Snake my sons bought for me on fathers day around 1998, I had it for 10 years but somehow the cage was left open and it disappeared in the houses duct work never to be seen again. While snakes almost certainly evolved from a lizard much like a monitor lizard they are not closely related to lizards, it is thought snakes evolved first from legless underground digging lizards much like the glass snakes we catch here every summer, glass snakes are really legless lizards and if you put a snake up beside the lizard the vast differences become apparent immediately. a snake has no eye lids, a snake has no ears, a snake can open it's mouth much wider than the size of it's head, and Glass lizards can shed their tails if caught much like many other lizards. legless lizards have evolved from several genera of lizards my yard contains two species of legless lizards, one is completely legless but the other has tiny nubs where the legs should be, but none of them come close to being as highly specialized as a real snake... I did an informal survey of my yard this summer and I found Species of lizard Broad head skink Five lined skink Ground skink Anole Glass snake (lizard) Species of amphibian Southern dusky salamander Newts tree frogs toad bullfrogs Species of snake rat snake corn snake black racer King snake green snake garter snake pygmy rattler Edited February 16, 2011 by Moontanman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imatfaal Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Moontanman - where is SENC? I am from pretty close to central London and I am pretty sure there would be a riot if someone discovered any of the snakes on your list in their gardens. We only have a handful of native snakes and they are all very secretive - most people in the uk will never see a snake in the wild until they go abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc. Josh Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I have a red tailed boa, and a ball python both are great pets and easy to care for. Now that you mentioned the glass snake that does seem to be a closer cousin of lizards than most. But however it is still a (new) species altogether? Or same school of thought as far as apes and humans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Moontanman - where is SENC? I am from pretty close to central London and I am pretty sure there would be a riot if someone discovered any of the snakes on your list in their gardens. We only have a handful of native snakes and they are all very secretive - most people in the uk will never see a snake in the wild until they go abroad. SENC South Eastern North Carolina, sorry for forgetting many of us are from the rest of the real world. This place is reptile heaven (amphibians too) compared to the mountains where I grew up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siderney_Mello_Pops Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I've got a Ball Python. Always liked reptiles, since they're so interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 (edited) I have a red tailed boa, and a ball python both are great pets and easy to care for. Now that you mentioned the glass snake that does seem to be a closer cousin of lizards than most. But however it is still a (new) species altogether? Or same school of thought as far as apes and humans? Actually no, it's more like a separate "Genesis" so to speak of the long legless body form, so many creatures have exploited this form it's hard to remember them all, at least two completely different groups of lizards have evolved "leglessness", actually there might be more, but it would be more like if merkats evolved into humanoids than the relationship between apes and humans. There are many completely different families of fish with this shape, I think there is at least one long snake shaped shark, many amphibians (I can think of three completely different "genesis" of that body shape just in amphibians), lizards, and of course real snakes. Of the vertebrates only mammals (ferrets come pretty damn close, lol) and birds seem to have missed out on the snake shape as a evolutionary solution to the environment... Edited February 16, 2011 by Moontanman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyMcC Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 In the uk there is an animal called a slow worm. It looks like a snake, lives like a snake but in fact is a legless lizard. At the other end of the scale whales have vestigial legs so legs "lost" in the course of evolution is not that rare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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