PERTH: Scientists have discovered a 113 million-year-old fossil of a snake which has four legs with fingers and toes.
The Tetrapodophis amplectus – nicknamed ‘huggy snake’ – is the first evidence found of a four-legged snake.
The 20cm-long skeleton, which is thought to be from Brazil, has a tiny head the size of a human fingernail.
It has two very small front legs with wrists, elbows and hands and slightly longer back legs, which would have been used to grasp its prey.
The fossil, which is of a juvenile, also shows adaptations for burrowing, rather than swimming, strengthening the idea that snakes evolved on land.
Dr Dave Martill, who discovered the unseen fossil in a collection in a German museum, said it is “an incredibly significant specimen”.
The University of Portsmouth professor said: “It is generally accepted that snakes evolved from lizards at some point in the distant past.
“What scientists don’t know yet is when they evolved, why they evolved, and what type of lizard they evolved from.
“This fossil answers some very important questions, for example it now seems clear to us that snakes evolved from burrowing lizards, not from marine lizards.”
