Famous discovery of four-legged snake has a twist in the tale

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In 2015, paleontologists announced a stunning discovery. Preserved in Cretaceous rock from Brazil was the complete skeleton of a beast resembling a snake, but with one significant addition: four tiny, almost vestigial legs. The beast, which they named Tetrapodophis amplectus, was the missing link between snakes and lizards.

According to a new analysis of the remains, Tetrapodophis (from the Greek, meaning "four-legged snake") is not a snake at all, but a species of extinct marine lizard that lived over 110 million years ago.

It's long been accepted that snakes weren't always the limbless slitherers they are today. We even have other fossils attesting to this, such as Najash rionegrina, a serpent from around 95 million years ago sporting two rear limbs, discovered in 2006.

"When the rock containing the specimen was split and it was discovered, the skeleton and skull ended up on opposite sides of the slab, with a natural mould preserving the shape of each on the opposite side," Caldwell says.

"The original study only described the skull and overlooked the natural mould, which preserved several features that make it clear that Tetrapodophis did not have the skull of a snake – not even of a primitive one."

What's more, in its belly were the remains of one of its last meals, appearing to be fishbones.

 Source - https://www.sciencealert.com/this-famous-four-legged-snake-fossil-is-something-else-after-all

[RAMROD 117,268]

  Evolution did what needed obviously 

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,977]

What's a lizard?

[TasteLikeWhiskey 1,561]

This is amazingly interesting and astounding!! 

We keep on finding fossils showing the 'missing links' between creatures that creationists have so long relied upon to support their beliefs. 

The fossil record isn't so incomplete now, is it

[Pennywise 36,080]

My antivirus is blocking that last photo because the website is risky, what's good sis @FfFfFfFF 

 

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3 hours ago, Pennywise said:

My antivirus is blocking that last photo because the website is risky, what's good sis @FfFfFfFF 

 

When I post threads, I search pictures from multiple sources so I may include photos from sketchy sites sometimes.. however, that last picture is taken directly from the source site which seems safe and pretty legit so I don't know what happened.