Snake fossil with legs

2000/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

In Israel, a site near the city of Jerusalem, they have discovered the fossil of a 95 million year old snake, a fossil of a snake with legs. The fossil is the second of the same characteristics (both in the same field) and has generated numerous questions about the evolution of snakes. Initially it was thought that snakes with legs were a chain between modern snakes and marine reptiles, and the discovery of fossils in a marine environment reinforced the theory of aquatic origin of snakes. But the last fossil in Jerusalem has put him in doubt.

The two fossils found by the new studies indicate that they are above what is expected in the evolutionary chain and, although they are extremely pathetic, they are much like modern snakes. The fossils of Jerusalem are therefore not ancient ancestors of snakes. But why were these species legs? The researchers have not been able to give a concrete answer to the question, but it seems that the legs lost by the ancestors reappeared in these species, disappearing again in the following generations. The fossils of Jerusalem retreated in evolution. The questions are more numerous than the answers in Jerusalem.