BRENT: From the robust boa constrictor to the venomous rattlesnake, all of the more than 3,400 snake species that slither today may have descended from the same prehistoric forest prowler, whose body had two small hind legs with toes and ankles, researchers reported on Tuesday.
After analyzing data gathered through fossils, genetic sequencing and anatomical comparisons of 73 snake and lizard species, a team of paleontologists from Yale University has constructed what it calls the most comprehensive snake “family tree” to date, whose findings nail longstanding questions about when, where and how modern snakes originated.
Daniel J Field, a doctoral candidate in evolutionary biology and an author of the study , concluded that the most recent common ancestor of all living snakes was nocturnal, thrived 128.5 million years ago in the southern hemisphere and de ern hemisphere and devoured large prey whole using its sharp, hooked teeth as a hunting tool.
The team first reconstructed the snake’s family tree from tips to its trunk, using a process called ancestral state reconstruction.
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