The common ancestor to the earliest known snakes was a nocturnal animal that lived in wooded areas of the southern hemisphere.
This has been determined by a team of paleontologists from Yale University, which has carried out the most detailed study to date on the ancestors of these animals. In an essay published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology , these researchers also highlight that these reptiles used to prey on relatively large prey, which they ambushed.
Allison Hsiang, an expert in Geology and Geophysics from the aforementioned institution, who has coordinated the trial, and her collaborators have analyzed everything from the anatomy of these vertebrates to their genomes. In addition, they have built an evolutionary tree that takes into account both living snakes, of which there are currently about 3,400 species, as well as extinct ones.
In this way, they have found out that the most recent ancestors of these snakes had already lost their forelimbs, but they still had tiny hind legs in which even the fingers and ankle joint can be seen. These primitive snakes originated a little over 128 million years ago, in the Cretaceous, and in the opinion of these scientists they first evolved on land.
Later, some adapted to marine life. His hunting technique was not to suffocate his victims. Rather, they captured them with their teeth, similar to hooked needles, and devoured them completely.
Image: Julius T. Csotonyi
